On the tasks of scientific ethics. The lectures of ethics

Abstract

To be scientific, ethics must not include statements that are derived in any manner other than ethical reasoning from axioms or facts. But on this road it cannot arrive at norms, at rules of conduct. Contrary to the common view, no science at all can give rules. Science says merely what is, and how it is, but not what ought to be. Norms, i.e. rules of conduct, follow not from theoretical studies but from the practical applications of the theoretical results. Hygiene, for instance, indicates physical movement as an indispensable condition of maintaining health; but the norm “We ought to make physical exercises” originates from our concern with the important aim of maintaining our health.