Adolf Reinach – Three Texts on Ethics

Grundbegriffe der Ethik Basic Concepts of Ethics Die Überlegung: Ihre ethische und rechtliche Bedeutung Reflection: Its Ethical and Legal Significance Grundzüge der Ethik Basic Features of Ethics Foreword Alessandro Salice A German-English Parallel Edition Translations by James Smith and Mette Lebech with introductions by James Smith 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.
With these three texts added to those already in translations, the whole of Reinach’s writings regarding ethics are now available in English language form. Each of the texts is presented in a parallel format, including the original German from the1989 edition of Reinach’s collected works alongside the English text by the translators. The compilation also includes a short introduction outlining the content of the articles and their place within Reinach’s wider body of work.