Ethics and Modern Thought: A Theory of Their Relations

"Ethics and Modern Thought: A Theory of Their Relations" by Rudolf Eucken is an exploration of moral philosophy that examines the difficulties of maintaining a strong ethical code in a world that is changing quickly, especially during the 20th Century. It asks if our ideas about what is right and wrong can still hold up when science, faith, and personal freedom are constantly pushing against them; the book looks at how the old rules that people used to follow are being questioned and suggests that we need to really think about what it means to be human in order to create a set of ethics that makes sense. Eucken points out how different beliefs, from religion to logic to community values to the importance of hard work, all play a part in how we think about ethics today, and argues that finding a new connection to something bigger than ourselves might be the key to solving the confusion in modern moral thought.