basis of all preference, and then, in detail, the reasons for
preferring this concrete act to that. Here are a thousand impulses
and instincts drawing us, with infinite further possibilities
suggesting themselves to reflection; the more developed our natures
the more frequently do our desires conflict. Why is any one better
than another? How can we decide between them? Or shall we perhaps
disown them all for some other and better way.

Man's effort to solve these problems is revealed outwardly in a
multitude of precepts and laws, in customs and conventions; and
inwardly in the sense of duty and shame, in aspiration, in the
instinctive reactions of praise, blame, contentment, and remorse. The
leadings of these forces are, however, often divergent, sometimes
radically so. We must seek a completer insight. There must be some
best way of solving the problem of life, some happiest, most useful
way of living; its pursuit constitutes the field of ethics. Nothing
could be more practical, more vital, more universally human.

Why should we study ethics?

(1) The most obvious reason for the study of ethics is that we may
get more light for our daily problems. We are constantly having to
choose how we shall act and being perplexed by opposing advantages.
Decide one way or the other we must. On what grounds shall we decide?
How shall we feel assured that we are following a real duty, pursuing
an actual good, and not being led astray by a mere prejudice or
convention? The alternative is, to decide on impulse, at haphazard,
after some superficial and one-sided reflection; or to think the matter
through, to get some definite criteria for judgments, and to face the
recurrent question, what shall we do? In the steady light of those