A reconstruction of Schlick's psycho-sociological ethics
pp. 317-349
in: Brian McGuinness (ed), Moritz Schlick, Berlin, Springer, 1985Abstract
Since antiquity, ethics has been one of the most important disciplines of philosophy and is perhaps the oldest. Schlick's ethics, as proposed in his book, Fragen der Ethik,1 breaks radically with this view. According to Schlick, ethics has firstly become a cognitive empirical discipline; it exists independently of philosophy. Secondly, ethics is founded on psychology and sociology and belongs to those disciplines. Thirdly, the ethical behavior of human beings is governed by positive and negative pleasure: Lust and Unlust. In German, Lust indicates a pleasant satisfaction, pleasant feelings and the like, including sexual pleasure. Here Lust will be translated by "pleasure".
