The book presents a comprehensive historical and theoretical overview of ethics, structured around the development of human conduct and moral reasoning. The authors argue that morality is not static but grows out of concrete social, political, and economic experiences. In the beginning, human life was dominated by group solidarity and custom, where the individual was merged into the tribe and governed by unwritten mores, taboos, and religious rituals. As societies evolved, economic differentiation, science, and trade began to break down this primitive unity, fostering individualism and the emergence of personal responsibility.
The second part of the work moves from the historical survey to the theoretical analysis of the moral life. It examines the central problems of ethics: the nature of voluntary activity, the relation between conduct and character, the pursuit of happiness, the function of reason, and the role of duty. The authors contrast teleological approaches, which emphasize consequences and general welfare, with jural approaches, which emphasize motive, the good will, and subjection to moral law. They also analyze the conflicting demands of self-assertion and self-denial, concluding that true moral good is found in self-realization through a social self.
The third part applies these ethical principles to the practical world of action, focusing on three major areas: civil society and the political state, the economic order, and the family. In politics, the tension between individual liberty and public authority is addressed. In the economic realm, the transition from simple production to corporate capitalism raises urgent questions of justice, wealth distribution, and the subordination of wealth to human personality. Finally, the family is examined as a fundamental psychological and social unit facing modern cultural and economic strain.
Throughout the text, the authors trace the parallel developments of the Hebrew tradition, which emphasized righteousness, personal obedience, and the kingdom of God, and the Greek tradition, which focused on measure, rationality, and the ideal state. By synthesizing these historical streams with modern scientific and democratic methods, the book presents morality as an ongoing, progressive process in which human beings become increasingly rational, social, and free.
