In 1910 Harvard published 43 short bibliographies covering “Social Ethics and Allied Subjects”, about half of which were dedicated to particular topics in economics, economic sociology, and social ethics. The project was coordinated by Plummer Professor of Christian Morals, Francis G. Peabody who compiled three of the short bibliographies.
Peabody regularly taught a course on the Ethics of Social Questions [e.g., 1902-03; 1904-05] so we may presume that most of the items listed below would have been in whole or in part assigned reading.
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About Francis G. Peabody
Links to biographical information previously posted
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Previously posted Harvard short bibliographies
(1910)
I.2. Economic Theory by Taussig
I.7. Social Statistics by Ripley
II.3. Taxation by Bullock
IV.5 Economics of Socialism by Carver
IV.6 Socialism and Family/Christian Ethics by McConnell
IV.7. Trade Unionism by Ripley
IV.8. Strikes and Boycotts by Ripley
IV.12 Thrift Institutions by Oliver M. W. Sprague
IV.13. Social Insurance by Foerster
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SOCIAL ETHICS
FRANCIS G. PEABODY
The sources of instruction in Social Ethics must be sought in the philosophical masterpieces which study the individual in his relation to social order: Maurice, Social Morality, 1869; Plato, The Republic, tr. Jowett, 1871; Grote, A Treatise on the Moral Ideals, 1876; Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 1883; Aristotle, Politics, tr. Jowett, 1885; Fichte, Vocation of Man, tr. Smith, 1889; Kant, Critique of Practical Reason, tr. Abbott, 5th ed., 1898; Royce, The World and the Individual, 1901.
Of contemporary and less academic titles, the following, out of a great number, may be named:
Addams, Jane. Democracy and social ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. 281.
A forcible exposition of the new duties created by a new social world. “The essential idea of democracy becomes the source and expression of social ethics” (p. 11).
Bosanquet, Helen. The strength of the people, a study in social economics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902, pp. xi, 345.
The correlation of circumstance and character traced in the problems of poverty, the family and industrialism. “‘Difficulties to overcome and freedom to overcome them’ is an essential condition of progress” (p. 339).
*Dewey, John, and Tufts, James H. Ethics. New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1908, pp. xiv, 618.
Ethical theory interpreted in its relation to “the world of action.” The ethics of social organization, economic life, politics and the family effectively described.
Dole, Charles F. The ethics of progress. New York: T. Y. Crowell & Co., 1909, pp. vii, 308.
A popular and lucid exposition of “the new morality.”
Henderson, Charles R. Practical sociology in the service of social ethics. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1902, pp. 25.
“Social technology” as the guide of social philosophy.
Hobson, J. A. The social problem; life and work. London: James Pott, 1902, pp. x, 295.
Socialism applied to the “economy of national life.” “The Social Question will find its essential unity in the problem how to deal with human waste” (p. 7). “An organized democracy standing on a sound basis of property” (p. 130).
Jones, Henry. Idealism as a practical creed. Glasgow: J. Maclehose & Sons, 1909, pp. ix, 299.
A lucid and serene exposition of the practical efficiency of ethical idealism. “The call of modern age” is a call to the “earnest questioning of our ideals of life” (p. 220).
Jones, Henry. The working faith of a social reformer. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1910, pp. xii, 308.
Lectures to students for the ministry, and collected essays, expounding the interdependence of individualism and socialism, or the concurrent evolution of social and individual rights, duties and powers” (p. 111).
*Mackenzie, John S. An introduction to social philosophy. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1890, pp. xi, 390.
An academic, somewhat elusive, but judicial and suggestive outline, which has not yet been superseded.
Muirhead, J. H. Philosophy and life and other essays. London: Swan, Sonnenschein & Co., 1902, pp. 274.
Admirable essays on various aspects of the ethics of modern life.
Peabody, Francis G. The approach to the social question. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1909, pp. vii, 210.
The ways of social science, sociology and economics traced, and the ethical approach approved and explored.
Perry, R. B. The moral economy. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1909, pp. xvi, 267.
A searching and convincing analysis of the moral life in its relation to science, art and religion.
Ritchie, David G. Studies in political and social ethics. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905, pp. ix, 238.
Occasional papers on the fundamental problems of social evolution, equality, liberty and responsibility.
*Stein, Ludwig. Die soziale Frage im Lichte der Philosophie. 2te verb. Aufl. Stuttgart: F. Enke, 1903, xvi, 598 S.
A brilliant survey of the history of social philosophy, with the outline of a system. Anti-socialist, but describing the “socializing” of property, law, politics and religion.
Wells, H. G. Mankind in the making. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904, pp. viii, 400.
Social organization in the “New Republic,” with regulation of births, language, education and politics.
Ziegler, Theobald. Die soziale Frage eine sittliche Frage. 6te Aufl. Leipzig: G. J. Göschen‘sche Verlagshandlung, 1899, 183 S.
An early, but permanently important study of the social problem by an ethical philosopher. The moral note in socialism, industrialism and politics detected and reaffirmed.
Image Source: Harvard University Archives. Francis Greenwood Peabody [photographic portrait, ca. 1900], Colorized by Economics in the Rear-view Mirror.