Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/833

 tard and punishment for actions to the cor- >onding disposition to do or avoid those actions. He founds his conclusion on these reasons : 1. That human beings in society are placed under discipline. 2. That when moral discipline is neglected, there is no security for virtuous conduct. 3. That the association of an action with disapprobation and punishment gives rise to a state of mind, in reference to it, which is not distinguishable from moral senti- ment. The Italian school of philosophy of the present century presents the subject of ethics in new phases. Virtue, according to Rosmini, is founded on the idea of possible being. Uni- versal being is the absolute good and the prin- ciple of every particular good. Moral good is the absolute good in so far as it is desired by man, since it is desire which first leads him to the idea of perfection, which is elaborated into that of being. The first precept of the moral law, therefore, is to love being as such. But as the moral act must be with reference to the ultimate goal and infinite object of thought, the formula is thus transformed : " Love in- telligent beings, not for themselves, but for their supreme end, which is God." Virtue consists in the conformity of intuitive to reflex knowledge, and its essential principle is truth. Obligation rests on the power of rational deci- sion, on what a person knows. Conscience is a speculative judgment on the morality of the practical judgment and on its consequences. Mamiani, also, seeks in ontology the sources of moral order. According to him, " absolute good exists," and a deduction from the idea of a first infinite cause is the fundamental princi- ple of ethics. Virtue is the voluntary coopera- tion of free and rational beings in the moral order of the universe, in which consists the absolute good, and which converges to God. Deviation, on the contrary, is evil and sin. The moral law in most general terms com- mands: "Do good." Duty requires the ac- complishment of the part assigned to each in- dividual in working out the supreme end of society. But beyond this fulfilment, there is a heroic virtue whose object is the greatest pos- sible realization of good, and which consists in the appropriation of individual capacities to the general interests of society. Mamiani maintains, as a matter of history, that right intentions have never resulted in greater evil than good, but that by a preestablished har- mony even a false application of a truth must result in some undesigned advantage. The law of progress reigns in the moral as in the material world, and ultimate perfection in an immortal state is the goal of humanity. Gio- berti defines virtue to be the knowledge of an absolute law and the conformity of a free will to that law. Law is an idea considered in reference to the will, and an ethical must be founded on a metaphysical system. An ulti- mate law cannot be considered independently of religion, because it is in fact God himself. The divine will manifested in the moral im- 573 VOL. XL 52 MORAL PHILOSOPHY 815 perative appears clothed with an absolute right. God as the absolute law reigning over the free human will is the condition of obligation. The ideal formula of Gioberti transferred to the department of ethics becomes : Being, by means of the human will, creates the good ; the human will, preferring law to affection, creates virtue ; virtue, reconciling affection with law, creates happiness. All these Italian systems of ethics recall the ancient speculations on the subject by referring virtue ultimately to the intellect, making ontological conceptions of being the foundation of responsibility. They also con- nect virtue closely with religion, and give to it something of an ecclesiastical character. The study of moral philosophy by American writers runs back into the last century, when Jonathan Edwards developed his theory of the nature of virtue, which he defined as the love of being in general, including under the term being both God and man, thus finding a philo- sophical formula for the Scriptural summary of the law. The theory of Edwards was modi- fied by his followers, Samuel Hopkins and Nathanael Emmons, who made virtue to con- sist in disinterested benevolence, rigidly ex- cluding all self-love. Their theory, however, was held rather as a religious doctrine than as a philosophical opinion. Following the gen- eral direction of Edwards, President D wight and Dr. Taylor held that benevolence is the highest good, blessing both giver and receiver ; man being so constituted that he finds his high- est happiness in promoting the happiness of others. More recently President Wayland has held that the rule of right is seen in the appre- hension of the relations between things; as the relation of parent and child, state and citi- zen, Creator and creature. President Hickok holds that there is an imperative of reason, which impels us to do that and that only which is due to spiritual excellency. In wor- thiness of the approbation of our spiritual na- ture every virtue finds its end. This absolute right is simple, immutable, and universal. Prof. Haven holds that right is a simple idea in- capable of definition, expressing an eternal and immutable distinction inherent in the nature of things, and not the creation of arbitrary power, whether of man or God. It belongs to all voluntary rational action, arises with the dawn of intelligence, and is universal, and not derived from anything external to the mind itself. Education simply appeals to it. Presi- dent Hopkins holds that the moral problem is an inquiry after the nature and ground of obligation. It presupposes a moral nature in man, but is not an inquiry as to man's moral powers. The ultimate obligation is that we should choose that which leads to the attain- ment of the end of our existence, and this is found in love ; all questions under theoretical morals may be resolved by an exposition of the law of love, and all questions under prac- tical morals by an exposition of love as a law. See Meiners, AUgemeine kritische Getchich-