对道德理论发展最有影响的著作有：Plato，dialogues entitled Republic，Laws，Protagoras and Gorgias；Aristotle，Ethics；Cicero，De Finibusand De Officiis；Marcus Aurelius，Meditations；Epictetus，Conversations；Lucretius，De Rerum Natura；St.Thomas Aquinas （selected and translated by Rickaby under title of Aquinas Ethicus）；Hobbes，Leviathan；Spinoza，Ethics；Shaftesbury，Characteristics，and Inquiry concerning Virtue；Hutcheson，System of Moral Philosophy；Butler，Sermons；Hume，Essays，Principles of Morals；Adam Smith，Theory of Moral Sentiments；Bentham，Principles of Morals and Legislation；Kant，Critique of Practical Reason，and Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Ethics；Comte，“Social Physics”（in his Course of Positive Philosophy）；Mill，Utilitarianism；Spencer，Principles of Ethics；Green，Prolegomena to Ethics；Sidgwick，Methods of Ethics；Selby-Bigge，British Moralists.2 vols.（a convenient collection of selections）
要了解当代的论文和历史，请参见本卷第一部分第一章中提到的文献。