Utilitarianism is the first target on which Vico opens fire, and he takes it as Hobbes and Spinoza had formulated it. Utility cannot be a sufficient ground for morals since it springs from the temporal part of man whilst morals are grounded on his eternal part. No principle of utilitarianism, whatever the forms ascribed to it by philosophers, can justify the process of differentiation, which is the constant development of social organisations. Deceit, force, need, imply as already in existence the society they are supposed to have produced. How could the supposedly happy and simple first owners of the soil be deceived into giving up their claims, if they had no desire whatever and no relation of any kind. For relations imply some kind of social state even if tacitly agreed upon. As to force, the first rulers were not merely strong in their individual force; their power had a far deeper root as they invariably appear at first as protectors of the weak and as antagonists of all anti-social and destructive tendencies; and their law was force indeed, but force _a natura præstantiori dictata_. The real ground of society is, therefore, moral, and as such essentially spiritual. Yet at first sight Vico’s view of the origin of law and society appears very much akin to that of “jus naturalism”; but as soon as it is understood that Vico’s notion of man’s nature is the Christian or spiritual one, then the difference is quite evident. Law to him is natural to man because what is not natural can neither stay nor last. Fear is certainly the origin of society; not, however, the mere fear of wild beasts or hunger but the fear of oneself; fear of solitude due to remorse and shame. Out of shame Vico sees arising the senses of honour, fidelity, probity, trust in promises, truth in words, honesty in deeds. So that society comes to have moral consciousness for its ground, and one can indeed consider society as the realisation of man’s best nature, of man’s spiritual conscience. This sense of shame or modesty could be called by empiricism the sense common to all men that enables them to realise without judgment what is necessary or useful to men. It is through this sense of decency or shame that the moral consciousness is enabled to embody itself in institutions and give stability and certitude to the freewill of man which is of its nature most uncertain.