(2) Only a man with an Hebraic training and rigoristic temper could
think of morality in this awestruck and unquestioning way. More
Bohemian people feel no such "categorical ought" in their breasts.
And if a man feels no such "categorical imperative," how can you prove
to him it is there? Kant's theory is at bottom mere assertion; if because
of your training and temperament you respond to it, and if you are
content not to analyze and explain the existence of this imperious
pressure upon your will, you are tremendously impressed. Otherwise
the whole elaborate Kantian system probably seems to you an unreal
brain-spun structure.
Kant, though a man of extraordinary mental powers, had but a narrow
range of experience to base his theories upon, and lived too early
to catch the genetic viewpoint. Hence there is a certain pedantic
naivete in his constructions. No man with any modern psychological
or historical training ought to be content to leave this extraordinary
"categorical imperative" unexplained. It is quite possible to trace
its origin and understand its function; there is nothing unique or
mysterious about it. Why should we bow down to a command shot
at us out of the air, a command irrelevant to our actual interests?
Children have to do so, and the majority of the human race are
still children, who may properly acquiesce in the rules of morality
without clearly realizing why. But the reflective man should not be
content to yield himself to the yoke unless he can see its necessity
and value.
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