Notions of Duty generally

{INTRODUCTION ^paragraph 135}

These are such moral qualities as, when a man does not possess them,

he is not bound to acquire them. They are: the moral feeling,

conscience, love of one's neighbour, and respect for ourselves

(self-esteem). There is no obligation to have these, since they are

subjective conditions of susceptibility for the notion of duty, not

objective conditions of morality. They are all sensitive and

antecedent, but natural capacities of mind (praedispositio) to be

affected by notions of duty; capacities which it cannot be regarded as

a duty to have, but which every man has, and by virtue of which he can

be brought under obligation. The consciousness of them is not of

empirical origin, but can only follow on that of a moral law, as an

effect of the same on the mind.

The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics · 第 32 / 52 题