A system of ethics by Paulsen Friedrich 1846-1908

Author:Paulsen, Friedrich, 1846-1908. [from old catalog]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New York, Chicago [etc.] C. Scribner's sons
Published: 1899-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

for the moral laws. The jurists have an old maxim: Fiat Justitia,pereat mundus. In accordance with this, the Kantian moral philosophy says: Fiat lex, pereat vita. There is a good reason for the formula: the stability of law is more important than such and such a particular purpose ; but, ultimately, the law exists for the sake of the people, to preserve them and not to destroy them. And the same relation obtains between the moral law and human life. Ultimately it owes its value solely to the fact that it has the tendency to preserve life and not to destroy it. Should a case arise in which obedience to the law would produce permanent ruin, the form must give way to the content, the means to the end. We shall have occasion, later on, to show that the particular moral laws are subject to this condition; the lie of necessity, the necessary wrong, which the jurists call the law of necessity, are such exceptions.

5. Conscience. We defined conscience as the consciousness of custom or the existence of custom in the consciousness of the individual. The authority with which it speaks is the authority of all those who support and protect custom and law against the particular deviating will: first, the authority of parents and teachers, who impress custom or objective morality upon the soul of the child; then the authority of the wider circles, which pronounce judgment upon the conduct of the individual by the bestowal of praise and blame, honor and disgrace ; further, the authority of the law and the magistracy, which deters the offender by threats and punishments; finally, the authority of the gods, which surrounds custom and law with religious awe. The individual compares his conduct with the standard thus sanctioned and protected, and regulates his individual will according to the universal will, which, after all, is his own general or fundamental will. Hence arise those emotions which are experienced before the deed as the deterrent or impelling conscience, and after the deed, as remorse or moral satisfaction, The content of conscience is

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