Moral Science

“Why am I obliged to keep my word?” Alexander Bain begins with a promise—and a question that opens onto the whole contest over right and wrong.

Writing in the late nineteenth century, Bain surveys the arguments that have shaped ethics, from ancient schools to modern theories of duty. Is morality commanded by God, settled by reason, felt by a special moral sense—or measured by the happiness our actions bring? Behind each answer lies another puzzle: what kind of faculty is conscience, and can kindness be free of self-interest? The stakes reach beyond private virtue to the justice and welfare of society. Which standard can tell us, at last, what we owe one another?

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