International Journal of Ethics

"And miles to go before I sleep" . . . might aptly apply to the current task.  I was fortunate enough to run across an index to International Journal of Ethics for the first 24 or so volumes.  I am now working my way through the index to identify appropriate articles for inclusion in the Bibliography.  I am also fortunate that this journal is "important" enough to be digitized and available--in whole or in part--in several repositories.  The "miles to go" is the not-tedious-but-time-consuming effort to access each article, determine whether it is appropriate for the Bibliography, and then document it.  Of course, nothing is ever that simple.  It's one thing to see the Felix Adler's name (for an obvious example) shows 9 entries in the index.  It's another to determine whether the article is pertinent to Ethical Culture.  (In Adler's case, that's pretty much a no brainer.  He wrote it, so it's in.)  It's still another to determine how to include the article.  That's one point at which time can be consumed.  

In October, 1891, Adler published "The Problem of Unsectarian Instruction" (IJE, 2:1, pp. 11-19).  A couple of issues later (IJE, 2:3, pp. 374-75) there is his "Brief Rejoinder to J. Mavor (D)."  The "D" indicates that this is a discussion entry, so now I need to check J. Mavor's article to see what Adler is discussing.  As it happens, Mavor was discussing Adler's earlier article on unsectarian instruction.  Adler's rejoinder to Mavor provided the same information given by the footnote linked to the title of his original article:  

Introductory lecture of a course on Moral Instruction, given before the School of Applied Ethics, Plymouth, Mass., July 1891.  [The complete course of sixteen lectures will be published by D. Appleton & Co., New York.] 

And, sure enough, The Moral Education of Children (the complete course), was duly published as Volume 21 in Appleton's International Education Series in 1892.

The conundrum of which is primary, which secondary, and how to cite a discussion article has sent me thumbing through the Chicago Manual of Style (which is not a bad thing), but that adds to the consumption of time, because, well, I have to read some of these articles as well, don't I?

So, I've added one article by Jane Addams ("Ethical Survivals in Municipal Corruption") and will turn next to Bernard Bosanquet (British philosopher, active with the London Ethical Society).  But the time is taken with looking up biographical information, thumbing through--and pausing to read--the articles themselves, and considering the context both within and without Ethical Culture as these papers were written and sometimes delivered at various meetings.  It is rather like one of Felix Adler's favorite escapes, hiking in the Adirondack--an escape from the intense activity of life in the city, a chance to recoup a sense of peace and place, a rigorous bit of exercise that keeps one's faculties "in shape."

It will take a while to complete this "exercise."  The index for these earlier years of IJE (now published by the University of Chicago as Ethics) runs for 15 pages of abbreviated entries.  On a first pass, I have marked (on my copy) the names of authors that I recognize from previous work on the Bibliography.  Bosanquet already had one entry; ow we have the chance to learn more of his work in Ethical Culture.  Most of the names I have marked are, admittedly, past leaders of the early Societies.  After this first "pass" through the list, there will also need to be a further review of authors and topics.  Likely this will take months before I might consider that I have done all that I can, but there are two points that might bring an end to this somewhat wandering reflection on the IJE index:  (1) A structured plan to add entries to the Bibliography from this resource has now begun, and (2) after some time away from working on the Bibliography, it's good to be back, wandering through the hills and valleys of ideas and discussions, noting the milestones, looking with awe at the vistas of thought and knowledge that we can now add to our understanding of the history of Ethical Culture.