Abstract

In a boldfaced reversal of current British trends, Findlay argues cogently that ethics cannot be sharply distinguished from meta-ethics. Reviving Brentano's theory of intentionality, and elaborating a doctrine of belief and action that acknowledges much debt to Peirce, he attempts to show how valuation is implicit in personal thinking and action and yet strives for an ideal of impersonality. Findlay claims most of reasoning, including evaluation, proceeds by analogical extension of key concepts. The search for the ideal is traced through values of welfare, justice, and duty. Most interesting is Findlay's development of Peirce's doctrine of synechism. The book closes with a discussion of God as the teleological ideal, and includes an appendix on "The Structure of the Kingdom of Ends."--R. C. N.