Three Texts on Ethics

Adolf Bernhard Philipp Reinach

Translated by James Smith , Mette Lebech

Between 1906 and 1913 Adolf Reinach wrote a considerable amount on the subject of ethics. Some of his work on that subject was published during his lifetime, while other parts survive only as transcripts from his lectures. This compilation brings together three pieces of work by Reinach dealing with ethics, published in English version for the first time. The first of these pieces shows Reinach’s early interest in developing a phenomenological ethics. The second, an article on ‘the ethical and legal significance of reflection’, published in 1911-13 has Reinach discuss the experience of reflection (Überlegung) as a problem for both ethics and for certain sections of the contemporaneous criminal law. The third piece contains a series of discussions on existing moral theories and Reinach’s own work towards a phenomenological ethics.