Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PART II THE ESSENTIAL FEATURES OF ROSMINTS ETHICAL THEORY INTRODUCTORY The Scope And Method Op Ethics The science of ethics is, according to Rosmini, the director of, human life, since its purpose is to direct man’s rational activity. Man’s goodness, however, depends upon the goodness of his will, for the will is the supreme and active rational power, which controls and synthesizes all his intellectual and moral actions. Nay, the will is precisely the same radical and immanent activity which constitutes human personality. Whence our philosopher concludes that man is moral, because his will is susceptible of good and bad activity, of moral or immoral acts and habits, or, in one word, of morality.1 Thus the crux of every theory is to discover the factors which make good man’s will, or, in other words, what is moral good or virtue. Man is endowed with the faculty of sensation as well as with that of intelligence. By the faculty of sensation, he perceives things as they are; by the faculty of intelligence, he perceives things as possible. This different mode of perceiving is, according to our philosopher, the cause of distinction between subjective and objective good. The sense is the source of subjective good; the intellect is the source of objective good. Every sensible good stimulates and satisfies man; and he is naturally impelled to unite himself to such a good, and to enjoy it. Man, however, does not regard the objective or intelligible good as something which belongs to himself, as something which may be felt by him. He merely considers it as an object of his intelligence, of his intellectual intuition everywhere and in whatsoever mode it may be found. The objective good is merely contemplated by the intelligence.“ Now, the burning question is whether …
