THE BASIS OF MORALITY BY ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER _Translated with Introduction and Notes by_ ARTHUR BRODRICK BULLOCK, MA. TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIMITED PATERNOSTER SQUARE 1903 PRIZE ESSAY ON THE BASIS OF MORALITY NOT APPROVED BY THE DANISH ROYAL SOCIETY OF SCIENCES COPENHAGEN, 30 _January_, 1840. "To preach Morality is easy, to found it difficult.--" (SCHOPENHAUER: _Ueber den Willen in der Natur_; p. 128) MATRI CARISSIMAE. CONTENTS. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE TRANSLATOR'S INTRODUCTION THE QUESTION PART I. _INTRODUCTION._ I. THE PROBLEM II. GENERAL RETROSPECT PART II. _CRITIQUE OF KANT'S BASIS OF ETHICS._ 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. NOTE. V. ON THE LEADING PRINCIPLE OF THE KANTIAN ETHICS VI. ON THE DERIVED FORMS OF THE LEADING PRINCIPLE OF THE KANTIAN ETHICS VII. KANT'S DOCTRINE OF CONSCIENCE VIII. KANT'S DOCTRINE OP THE INTELLIGIBLE AND EMPIRICAL CHARACTER, THEORY OF FREEDOM NOTE IX. FICHTE'S ETHICS AS A MAGNIFYING GLASS FOR THE ERRORS OF THE KANTIAN PART III. _THE FOUNDING OF ETHICS._ 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 VIRTUE OF JUSTICE VII. THE VIRTUE OF LOVING-KINDNESS VIII. THE PROOF NOW GIVEN CONFIRMED BY EXPERIENCE IX. ON THE ETHICAL DIFFERENCE OF CHARACTER. PART IV. _ON THE METAPHYSICAL EXPLANATION OF THE PRIMAL ETHICAL PHAENOMENON._ I. HOW THIS APPENDIX MUST BE UNDERSTOOD II. THE METAPHYSICAL GROUNDWORK JUDICIUM REGIAE DANICAE SCIENTIARUM SOCIETATIS TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 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 read German with sufficient ease to make them care to take up the original. The present Essay is one of the most important contributions to Ethics since the time of Kant, and, as such, is indispensable to a thorough knowledge of the subject. Moreover, from whatever point of view it be regarded,--whether the reader find, when he closes the book, that his conviction harmonises with the conclusion reached, or not; it would be difficult to find any treatise on Moral Science more calculated to stimulate thought, and lift it out of infantile imitation of some prescribed pattern. The believer in the Kantian, or any other, basis of Ethics, could hardly measure the strength or the weakness of his own position more surely than by comparing it with the Schopenhauerian; while he who is yet in search of a foundation will find much in the following pages to claim his attention.