Elements of Morals: With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the StateJanet, Paul
Philosophy
Elements of Morals: With Special Application of the Moral Law to the Duties of the Individual and of Society and the State
Janet, Paul
Ethics
Honor and shame are therefore not always an exact measure of the moral
value of actions; for be they but brilliant, man will soon rid himself of
all shame; this happens, for instance, in cases of prodigality,
licentiousness, ambition. One does wrong, not without remorse, but with a
certain ostentation which stifles the feelings of shame.
Let us pass now to the sentiments which the actions of others excite in
us.
Sympathy, antipathy, kindness, esteem, contempt, respect, enthusiasm,
indignation, these are the various terms by which we express the diverse
sentiments of the soul touching virtue and vice.
_Sympathy_ is a disposition to share the same impressions with other men;
to sympathize with their joy is to share that joy; to sympathize with
their grief is to share that grief. It may happen that one sympathizes
with the defects of others when they are the same as our own; but, as a
general thing, people sympathize above all with the good qualities, and
experience only antipathy for the bad. At the theatre, all the spectators,
good and bad, wish to see virtue rewarded and crime punished.
The contrary of sympathy is antipathy.
Kindness is the disposition to wish others well. _Esteem_ is a sort of
kindness mingled with judgment and reflection, which we feel for those who
have acted well, especially in cases of ordinary virtues; for before the
higher and more difficult virtues, esteem becomes _respect_; if it be
heroism, respect turns into _admiration_ and _enthusiasm_; admiration
being the feeling of surprise which great actions excite in us, and
enthusiasm that same feeling pushed to an extreme; carrying us away from
ourselves, as if a god were in us.[3] _Contempt_ is the feeling of
aversion we entertain towards him who does wrong; it implies particularly
a case of base and shameful actions. When these actions are only
condemnable without being odious, the sentiment is one of _blame_, which,
like esteem, is nearer being a judgment than a sentiment. When, finally,
it is a case of criminal and revolting actions, the feeling is one of
_horror_ or _execration_.
=12. Liberty.=--We have already said that man or the _moral agent_ is
_free_, when he is in a condition to choose between right and wrong, and
able to do either at his will.
Liberty always supposes one to be in possession of himself. Man is free
when he is awake, in a state of reason, and an adult. He is not free, or
very little so, when he is asleep, or delirious, or in his first
childhood.
Liberty is certified to man.
1. By the inward sentiment which accompanies each of his acts; for
instance, at the moment of acting, I feel that I can will or not will to
do such or such an action; if I enter on it, I feel that I can discontinue
it as long as it is not fully executed; when it is completed, I am
convinced that I might have acted otherwise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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