Page:Ferrier's Works Volume 3 "Philosophical Remains" (1883 ed.).djvu/505

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INTRODUCTORY LECTURE,


NOVEMBER 1861.




1. In this lecture I propose to consider a subject which lies at the very threshold of moral philosophy, and which may therefore form an appropriate theme for a general and introductory address. The topic to which I refer is the relation of ethics to psychology; in other words, the relation of moral philosophy to that more extensive study known as the science of the human mind. This latter science, psychology namely, is a department of philosophy on which all or most of you have already, I believe, bestowed some attention, and in which you have made some progress. What we have now to consider is, how this science stands related to the department of philosophy, which is the province of study treated of in this class. The complete illustration of this connection would require a wide survey of philosophy, both in itself and in its history; but enough may now be said to make intelligible to you the