Later we shall have to show upon what grounds the community
discriminates between acceptable and reprehensible facts, calling the
former good and the latter bad. For the present it is enough to observe
that Reason derives the laws, which it constantly impresses on man, from
the opinion of the community.
It can happen that Reason rejects the opinion of the community and forms
a conclusion opposed to it. This revolt of individual morality against
conventional morality is the great tragedy of man. It can only occur in
the soul of a hero, for mediocre and insipid people always bow to the
opinion of the majority. There is clearly imminent danger of making a
mistake. Not seldom, however, the individual is right in his opposition
to the community, and then the latter is fired by his example to examine
its traditional dogmas and to correct or reject them. This is not the
only, but it is the most common means by which Morality is developed and
changed. Its progress demands martyrs. Strong personalities must be
sacrificed to force a revision of moral values. Socrates has to swallow
the draft of hemlock so that unfettered thought may acquire the right to
doubt the legend of the gods. Jesus has to incur the dangerous anger of
the Pharisees so that the adulteress may be treated with indulgence and
human sympathy instead of being punished according to rigorous law. But
the opposition of a self-willed, subjective Morality to the accepted
moral law is always exceptional; the general rule is submission to the
moral law. This is indeed a necessary preliminary to revolt against the
moral law of the community, for it is only by means of a vigorous social
education that man develops such a nicely balanced and keen sense of
Good and Bad, that he cannot prevail upon himself to carry out generally
approved actions which his own intelligence does not recognize as moral.
He whose moral sense has not been intensified by strict discipline will
never be assailed by doubt, as long as he follows in the footsteps of
the multitude.
Hence, as a rule, Reason exercises its control of the actions of man in
conformity with the laws prescribed by the community. Before Morality
develops into the practice of Good and the rejection of Bad it takes the
form of consideration for the world at large, since it is the latter
which has created the concepts of Good and Bad as well as the standard
by which they are judged, and in order to avoid conflict with the
community, and to maintain uninterrupted agreement with it, the
individual exerts himself to persist in doing good and to refrain from
doing evil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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