Ethical movement

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The endeavor that began in North America, England and Germany in the 1860s to spread moral values ​​and to detach them from religion is called the ethical movement . The moral ideas should especially be in harmony with action.

Representative

The movement originated in North America and was related to Unitarian and humanist endeavors. The most important leaders and speakers were Felix Adler , William Salter and Stanton Coit . With the founding of the Societies for Ethical Culture in 1876 ​​by Felix Adler, he is considered to be the founder of the ethical movement . Subsequently, a number of other companies with similar goals developed.

William Mackintire Salter had made himself known through his lectures on "The Religion of Morality". He starts out from Kant , emphasizes his concept of duty very strongly, but replaces religion, which is as good as abolished, with the practice of human love. Felix Adler's most popular work is Moral Education for Children and by the Englishman Stanton Coit, among other works, comes The Ethical Movement in Religion .

After such an association was founded in London, the German Society for Ethical Culture was formed in Berlin under the leadership of Professor of Astronomy Wilhelm Foerster and Professor of Philosophy Georg von Gizycki , to which subdivisions in other German cities were affiliated. In Germany were also active for this direction: the son of Professor Foerster Friedrich W. Foerster as well as August Döring, Ferdinand Tönnies , Friedrich Jodl , Theobald Ziegler and Johannes Unold, but without quite agreeing on their goals. The movement lost its importance after Gizycki's death (1895), but this may also have something to do with the fact that social issues came more and more to the fore.

The following magazines advocated the ethical movement: the "Mitteilungen der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Ethische Kultur" (Berlin 1894–95) and the "Ethische Kultur". Weekly for social-ethical reforms «. The latter became after the death of the first editor, v. Gizycki, further edited by FW Foerster, later by Penzig and Kronenberg. In America the direction was represented by the magazines "The Open Court", "The Monist" and the "International Journal of Ethics".

aims

The impetus for the foundation was that more and more people turned away from the church and the institution could no longer adequately fulfill its role as moral support. In the view of the movement, the church was abandoned primarily because of its dogmatic principles and tenets of faith. The movement also saw the problem in the various religions that the boundaries of the various religions would separate the respective followers. Because of this, the ethical movement wanted to take on the task of teaching moral ideas and, with the ethical associations, to form a society with common goals for common moral needs.

The main goal of the movement was to instill ethical culture and achieve moral progress. Societies are committed to maintaining human culture, which has been defined as a state of justice, truthfulness, humanity and mutual respect. This should be achieved through teaching that should not take account of divisive religious dogmas. It was also demanded that people recognize themselves as the closest cause and bring about what is desired instead of just praying for it. As a result, one had to act in an exemplary manner and the ideas had to be followed accordingly. The movement did not see itself as an opponent of the church, but wanted to achieve the “moral ennoblement” of the people simply by completely different means. They do not want to base what connects people on ideas that separate people. They therefore adhere to the principle of developing moral education completely independently of all theological concepts, solely from the deeper conditions of existence and fundamental laws of nature and their inseparable interaction with the community. Belief in a personal God was not required of the community.

In addition to the above, the movement saw itself as an answer to the social and labor question. Because if, according to the historical logic, the moral conditions were to improve, this would also lead to an improvement in the external living conditions.

“In the formation of our society, we have a more noble private and fairer social life in mind. The basis of our movement does not lie in the old religions, nor in any of their rationalized forms. "

- Friedrich Wyss

See also

literature

  • Friedrich Wyss: The ethical movement in America and Germany. *) . *) "Report [...] on important phenomena of time". Julius Klinkhardt printing works, Leipzig 1910
  • Meyer's Large Conversation Lexicon . Volume 6. Leipzig 1906, p. 139, picture of the original and transcribed text on Zeno.org

Further reading (especially educational):

  • Enders, S. (2002): Morality Lessons and Life Studies . Bad Heilbrunn. ISBN 978-3-7815-1227-6
  • Visser, A. (1998): The evolution of the mind. Ethical societies in Europe and the USA between science and religion. Contribution to the prehistory of international reform pedagogy. In: Rülcker, T / Oelkers, J. (Ed.): Political reform pedagogy. Bern u. a., 323 - 347. ISBN 3906759148
  • Visser, A. (2005): Enlightenment and self-redemption. Friedrich Wyss and the secular moral education, 1874 - 1918. In: Detlef Horster / Jürgen Oelkers (ed.): Pedagogy and ethics. Wiesbaden: VS Verl. Für Sozialwissenschaften (2005), pp. 67–86. ISBN 3-8100-3976-4

References and comments

  1. ↑ Translated by G. v. Gizycki, Leipzig 1885. Digitized edition on archive.org
  2. ↑ German by G. v. Gizycki, Berlin 1894
  3. ↑ German by G. v. Gizycki, Berlin 1890
  4. ↑ Note in Meyers Konversations-Lexikon : “Cf. [Martin] Keibel, Religion and its right in relation to modern moralism (Halle 1891); Brasch , The goals of the ethical movement (Leipz. 1893); Moulet, Le mouvement éthique (German by Penzig: »Pioneers of moral progress«, Berl. 1902). "
  5. ↑ Extract from: Ethics . In: Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon 1894–1896, Volume 6, pp. 387–389 (“Ethical Movement” mentioned under Ethical , Page 389).
  6. ^ Friedrich Wyss: The ethical movement in America and Germany . Buchdruckerei Julius Klinkhardt, Leipzig 1910, p. 2
  7. ^ Friedrich Wyss: The ethical movement in America and Germany . Buchdruckerei Julius Klinkhardt, Leipzig 1910, p. 6
  8. ↑ Friedrich Wyss summarizing William Salter's work The Religion of Morals from p. 299