Treatise on Ethics

In his "Treatise on Ethics", Malebranche develops a detailed, "experimental" science of ethics in two parts - the ethics of virtue and the ethics of duty. It distinguishes six sources of motivation (from perceptions to passion), and explores our duties to ourselves, others and to God.

Written seven years after publication of his "Search after Truth", Malebranche's "Treatise on Ethics" develops a detailed, "experimental" science of ethics in two parts - the ethics of virtue and the ethics of duty. Part One distinguishes six sources of motivation: sense perceptions, passions, imagination and "inner feelings" of love as-respect, as-goodwill, and as-esteem. It examines how each is to be evaluated. This is interwoven with an Aristotelian analysis of act and habit, and voluntary vs involuntary acts, and practical reasoning. This part concludes with two basic virtues - "the strength of the mind" and "the freedom of the mind". In part Two, Malebranche explores our duties to ourselves, to others, to our sovereign and to God. The translator's introduction discusses the place of Malebranche's ethics within his larger system, his borrowings and innovations and his impact on later philosophers.