An Analytical and Historical Perspective
Expositions of topics in modern textbooks are analytical. They explain the subject based on the concepts, principles and theories which currently hold the ground. No references are usually made to the history or evolution of ideas. While explaining electricity or magnetism, modern Physics texts
do not discuss earlier theories which regarded electricity and magnetism as some sort of fluids. The earlier theories are of interest only to historians of ideas, and not to current practitioners.
The position of Ethics (and more generally of philosophy) is rather different in this regard. The central questions concerning human morals have been formulated by the ancient Greek philosophers and Indian sages. Although human society has since been transformed totally, the essential moral issues which men face continue to be the same. The identification, analysis and resolution of moral problems which the great thinkers of the past attempted have therefore continued to be relevant. Hence, textbooks on Ethics continue to refer to the work of the great philosophers of the past.