The Basis of Morality

With the imperative Form of Ethics, which in Chapter II. we proved to be a _petitio principii_, is directly connected a favourite idea of Kant's, that may be excused, but cannot...

The truth I have here laid down, that Compassion is the sole non-egoistic stimulus, and therefore the only really moral one, is a strange, indeed almost incomprehensible paradox...

If we look more closely at this process called Compassion, which we have shown to be the primary ethical phaenomenon, we remark at once that there are two distinct degrees in wh...

So far all our steps have been supported by the firm rock of experience. But at this point it fails us, and the solid earth sinks from under our feet, as we press forward in our...

There still remains a question to be resolved, before the basis which I have given to Ethics can be presented in all its completeness. It is this. On what does the great differe...

But when we cast a retrospect over the attempts made, and made in vain, for more than two thousand years, to find a sure basis for Ethics, ought we not perhaps to think that aft...

It is well known that Kant put the leading principle of his Ethics into another quite different shape, in which it is expressed directly; the first being indirect, indeed nothin...

(3) Whatever moves the Will,--this, and this alone, implies the sense of weal and woe, in the widest sense of the term; and conversely, weal and woe signify "that which is in co...

After having tested in the preceding chapter the actual basis of Kant's Ethics, I now turn to that which rests on it--his =leading principle of Morals=. The latter is very close...

Kant's _πρῶτον ψεῡδος_ (first false step) lies in his conception of Ethics itself, and this is found very clearly expressed on page 62 (R., p. 54): "In a system of practical phi...

The alleged Practical Reason with its Categorical Imperative, is manifestly very closely connected with Conscience, although essentially different from it in two respects. In th...

The attack I have made, in the cause of truth, on Kant's system of Morals, does not, like those of my predecessors, touch the surface only, but penetrates to its deepest roots....

the opportunity of describing how Egoism behaves in everyday life, where it is always peering out of some corner or other, despite ordinary politeness, which, like the tradition...

Thus justice is the primary and essentially cardinal virtue. Ancient philosophers recognised it as such, but made it co-ordinate with three others unsuitably chosen.[1] Loving-k...

For the people morality comes through, and is founded on, theology, as the express will of God. On the other hand, we see philosophers, with few exceptions, taking special pains...

This is the question which was set as subject for a prize essay by the Royal Society of Holland at Harlem, 1810, and solved by J.C.F. Meister; and in comparison with the task be...

Just as in Anatomy and Zoology, many things are not so obvious to the pupil in preparations and natural products as in engravings where there is some exaggeration; so if there i...

In the foregoing pages the moral incentive (Compassion) has been established as a fact, and I have shown that from it alone can proceed unselfish justice and genuine loving-kind...

between man and man is an original and ultimate datum, caused by the transcendentally free act of the Intelligible Character, that is, the Will, as Thing in itself, outside phae...

This translation was undertaken in the belief that there are many English-speaking people who feel more than a merely superficial interest in ethical research, but who may not r...

It is Kant's great service to moral science that he purified it of all Eudaemonism. With the ancients, Ethics was a doctrine of Eudaemonism; with the moderns for the most part i...

This form of the doctrine of duties was very acceptable to Kant, and in working out his position he left it untouched; for, like his predecessors, along with the duties towards...

(Chapter IX.). His proper function is shown to be that of a magnifying glass for Kant. By means of this powerful human lens we can see the monstrous shapes into which the Kantia...

There is first the empirical question to be settled, whether actions of voluntary justice and unselfish loving-kindness, which are capable of rising to nobleness and magnanimity...

The chief and fundamental incentive in man, as in animals, is =Egoism=, that is, the urgent impulse to exist, and exist under the best circumstances. The German word _Selbstsuch...

[9] V. _Gesammelte Schriften und Dichtungen_ von Richard Wagner. Zweite Auflage, vol. x. "Was nützt diese Erkenntnis?" p. 361:--_Welchen unsäglichen Gewinn würden wir aber den e...

Thus the foundation which Kant gave to Ethics, which for the last sixty years has been regarded as a sure basis, proves to be an inadmissible assumption, and merely theological...

The preceding considerations, which were unavoidably necessary in order to clear the ground, now enable me to indicate the true incentive which underlies all acts of real moral...

I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS II. ON THE IMPERATIVE FORM OF THE KANTIAN ETHICS III. ON THE ASSUMPTION OF DUTIES TOWARDS OURSELVES IN PARTICULAR IV. ON THE BASIS OF THE KANTIAN ETHICS....

Difference of Character. The theory that this difference is innate and immutable is supported by numerous extracts from various writers of all periods, and illustrated in many w...

I. CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEM II. SCEPTICAL VIEW III. ANTIMORAL INCENTIVES IV. CRITERION OF ACTIONS OF MORAL WORTH V. STATEMENT AND PROOF OF THE ONLY TRUE MORAL INCENTIVE VI. THE...