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, actually occur in experience.
Unfortunately, this inquiry cannot be decided altogether empirically,
because it is invariably only the act that experience gives, the
=incentives= not being apparent. Hence the possibility always
remains that an egoistic motive may have had weight in determining a
just or good deed. In a theoretical investigation like the present,
I shall not avail myself of the inexcusable trick of shifting the
matter on to the reader's conscience. But I believe there are few
people who have any doubt about the matter, and who are not convinced
from their own experience that just acts are often performed simply
and solely to prevent a man suffering from injustice. Most of as, I
do not hesitate to say, are persuaded that there are persons in whom
the principle of giving others their due seems to be innate, who
neither intentionally injure any one, nor unconditionally seek their
own advantage, but in considering themselves show regard also for the
rights of their neighbours; persons who, when they undertake matters
involving reciprocal obligations, not only see that the other party
does his duty, but also that he gets his own, because it is really
against their will that any one, with whom they have to do, should be
shabbily treated. These are the men of true probity, the few _aequi_
(just) among the countless number of the _iniqui_ (unjust). Such
people exist. Similarly, it will be admitted, I think, that many help
and give, perform services, and deny themselves, without having any
further intention in their hearts than that of assisting another, whose
distress they see. When Arnold von Winkelried exclaimed: "_Trüwen,
lieben Eidgenossen, wullt's minem Wip und Kinde gedenken_,"[1] and then
clasped in his arms as many hostile spears as he could grasp; can any
one believe that he had some selfish purpose? I cannot. To cases of
voluntary justice, which cannot be denied without deliberate and wilful
trifling with facts, I have already drawn attention in Chapter II. of
this Part. Should any one, however, persist in refusing to believe that
such actions ever happen, then, according to his view, Ethics would
be a science without any real object, like Astrology and Alchemy, and
it would be waste of time to discuss its basis any further. With him,
therefore, I have nothing to do, and address myself to those who allow
that we are dealing with something more than an imaginary citation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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