It figures as something
ultimate and unanalyzable, if not frankly supernatural; that it is
a mere instrument in the attainment of an ulterior end, to be used
or rejected according to its observed usefulness is an abhorrent thought.
There has thus arisen a school of philosophers who base their
justification of morality entirely upon the deliverances of conscience.
Their theories vary in detail and have received sundry names; we will
group them here for convenience under the general caption "moral
intuitionism." As a rule they steer clear of the historic point of
view; they refuse to believe that conscience has a natural history.
Nor are they usually keen at psychological analysis; the numberless
variations in form which conscience assumes in different individuals
are, for their purposes, better ignored. Instead of analyzing the moral
sense into its components and describing the mental stuff of which
it is composed, instead of tracing its genesis and studying the forces
that have produced it, they wax eloquent over its importance and
universality. As preachers they are admirable. But the foundation they
provide for morality is slippery. It amounts to saying, "We ought to
do right because we know we ought!" When we ask how we can be sure,
in view of the general fallibility of human conviction, that we are
not mistaken in our assurance, and following a false light, they can
but reiterate in altered phraseology that we know because we know.
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