Abstract

Felix Adler and his first four assistants who founded Ethical Societies in the decade after his Society for Ethical Culture in New York are presented in comparative intellectual biographies, showing varying adherence to Adler's philosophic principles: the metaphysical independence of ethics, and its supremacy over all other categories. ;Only Adler, who led the Ethical movement forcefully until his death in 1933, has been previously and now extensively studied. The others and their dates of full service in the Fraternity of Ethical Teachers are: William M. Salter of Chicago , S. Burns Weston of Philadelphia , Walter L. Sheldon of St. Louis , and Stanton Coit of London . ;The metaphysical independence of ethics, in neo-Kantian terms for Adler and more generally Idealistic terms for the others, was often mistaken both inside and out of the Ethical movement, and by some professional philosophers and critics, as exemption of ethics from metaphysical or intellectual grounding. These biographies show how this first generation of Ethical leaders remained relatively faithful to Adler's principles, carrying them through a second quarter-century, with colleagues of a second generation. ;A brief appraisal is given the second, third, fourth and even the new fifth generation of Ethical leaders. The third generation made an uneven transition from independence of ethics sanctioned by philosophic Idealism, to independence understood as naturalism or scientific humanism. In the new fifth generation, starting about 1976, a shift "back" to Adler's original sanctions is claimed, but in terms of existentialism and the 'new' mysticism