PAST AND FUTURE OF ETHICS By M. A. R. Tuker
Today, when rival ideologies, rival modes of political and social organ- isation are not only so numerous and divergent but so widely discussed, it is important that a proper understanding of the fundamentals of ethics or human conduct should be available. Mr. Tuker in this comprehensive study (Oxford University Press, 2 Is.) has attempted to provide the material for such an understanding. Its appeal is to the lay as well as to the esoteric reader. Mr. Tuker's central aim is to displace the theory that conduct is evolved from blind custom and superstition and to place it upon a more logical, rational basis. Upon this basis he discusses such ethical problems as truth, lust, love—he claims that " love has nothing to do with sex attraction "—friendship, force—he rigor- ously attacks the totalitarian conception that " might is right "—killing, human happiness, marriage—in the present attitude to which he finds much to condemn—&c. The psychological per- spicacity and the vast mass of heter- ogeneous knowledge which he brings to the subject have enabled Mr. Taker to write a most lively and instructive book.
Previous page
