Abstract

Pflicht und Neigung by Hans Reiner was first published in Germany in 1951. The present translation by Mark Santos is a translation of the first four chapters of the second edition of this work, which was published under the title Die Grundlagen der Sittlichkeit in 1974. Also included in this English translation are four essays by Reiner, all on ethical topics, and closely related to the topics of Duty and Inclination: "On the Adaptation of the Phenomenological Method to and its Refinement as a Method of Ethics," "Is Value Ethics out of Date?," "The Golden Rule and Natural Law," and "Good and Value, the Philosophical Relevance of the Concept of Value," all essays previously published by Reiner in German in the 1970's. The translation also has a brief preface by William K. Frankena, in which he says that if he were asked to select "one German moral philosopher of the last fifty years for translation into English, it would be Hans Reiner."