On the Basis of Morality

by Schopenhauer, Arthur; Payne, E. F. J.

• ISBN13: 9780872204423
• ISBN10: 0872204421
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-09-01
• Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Inc

Summary

Interest in Schopenhauer has increased noticeably in recent years. Published here is one of his key works, which has been out of print for a long time, in the form of Payne's definitive translation. This work is one of the most significant nineteenth century treatises on ethics. It is also Schopenhauer's most extended discussion of traditional themes in ethics and presents a descriptive ethics radically at odds with rationally based, prescriptive ethical theories. Schopenhauer begins this book with a wide-ranging critique of Kant's ethics, one that anticipates the work of contemporary critics of modern moral philosophy like that of G E M Anscombe, Philippa Foot, and Richard Taylor. Schopenhauer argues that compassion is the basis of morality, and in so doing presents a virtue ethics in which passion and desire are viewed as the keys for explaining different moral characters, behaviours, and world views. In the concluding part of his essay, Schopenhauer sketches his metaphysics of morals, using Kant's transcendental idealism as a ground for stressing both the interconnectiveness of being and the affinity of his ethics to Eastern thought.

Table of Contents

Introduction	ix
Biographical Note	xxxix
Selected Bibliography	xli
ON THE BASIS OF MORALITY
Preface to the First Edition	3	(30)
Preface to the Second Edition	33	(4)
The Question Advanced by the Royal Society	37	(2)
Introduction	39	(10)
Concerning the Problem	39	(4)
General Retrospect	43	(6)
Criticism of the Basis Given to Ethics by Kant	49	(71)
Brief Survey	49	(3)
On the Imperative Form of the Kantian Ethics	52	(6)
On the Assumption of Duties to Ourselves in Particular	58	(3)
On the Basis of the Kantian Ethics	61	(27)
On the Supreme Principle of the Kantian Ethics	88	(6)
On the Derived Forms of the Supreme Principle of the Kantian Ethics	94	(10)
Kant's Doctrine of Conscience	104	(5)
Kant's Doctrine of the Intelligible and Empirical Characters. Theory of Freedom	109	(6)
Fichte's Ethics as a Mirror for Magnifying the Errors of the Kantian	115	(5)
The Foundation of Ethics	120	(79)
Requirements	120	(1)
Skeptical View	121	(10)
Antimoral Incentives	131	(7)
Criterion of Actions of Moral Worth	138	(2)
Statement and Proof of the Only Genuine Moral Incentive	140	(8)
The Virtue of Justice	148	(14)
The Virtue of Loving-Kindness	162	(5)
Confirmations of the Expounded Basis of Morals	167	(20)
On the Ethical Difference of Characters	187	(12)
On the Metaphysical Explanation of the Primary Ethical Phenomenon	199	(16)
How to Understand This Supplement	199	(4)
Metaphysical Foundation	203	(12)
Judgement of the Royal Danish Society	215	(2)
Index	217