Editing Wilhelm Wundt (section)

=== Ethics ===
Parallel to Wundt's work on cultural psychology he wrote his much-read ''Ethik'' (1886, 3rd ed. in 2 Vols., 1903), whose introduction stressed how important development considerations are in order to grasp religion, customs and [[morality]]. Wundt considered the questions of ethics to be closely linked with the empirical psychology of motivated acts<ref>(Grundzüge, 1902–1903, Vol. 3.</ref> "Psychology has been such an important introduction for me, and such an indispensable aid for the investigation of ethics, that I do not understand how one could do without it."<ref>Wundt: Ethik, 1886, Vorwort p. III.</ref> Wundt sees two paths: the anthropological examination of the facts of a moral life (in the sense of cultural psychology) and the scientific reflection on the concepts of morals. The derived principles are to be examined in a variety of areas: the family, society, the state, education, etc. In his discussion on [[free will]] (as an attempt to mediate between [[determinism]] and [[indeterminism]]) he categorically distinguishes between two perspectives: there is indeed a natural causality of brain processes, though conscious processes are not determined by an intelligible, but by the empirical character of humans – volitional acts are subject to the principles of mental causality. "When a man only follows inner causality he acts freely in an ethical sense, which is partly determined by his original disposition and partly by the development of his character."<ref>Wundt: Ethik, 1886, p. 410.</ref>

On the one hand, Ethics is a normative discipline while, on the other hand, these 'rules' change, as can be seen from the empirical examination of culture-related [[morality]]. Wundt's ethics can, put simply, be interpreted as an attempt to mediate between Kant's [[apriorism]] and [[empiricism]]. Moral rules are the legislative results of a universal intellectual development, but are neither rigidly defined nor do they simply follow changing life conditions. [[Individualism]] and [[utilitarianism]] are strictly rejected. In his view, only the universal intellectual life can be considered to be an [[end in itself]]. Wundt also spoke on the idea of humanity in ethics, on human rights and [[human duties]] in his speech as Rector of Leipzig University in 1889 on the centenary of the [[French Revolution]].