The Basis of Morality
1840
Schopenhauer's 1840 treatise remains one of philosophy's most audacious challenges to how we think about right and wrong. In it, the pessimistic philosopher takes aim at Immanuel Kant's ethics of duty, arguing that the Categorical Imperative, act only according to maxims you could will to be universal laws, is not merely insufficient but fundamentally misunderstands what moves human beings to moral action. Schopenhauer builds a devastating critique, piece by piece, showing that Kant's rationalist framework cannot explain why we actually feel compassion for others or why we refrain from cruelty. His alternative is radical: compassion, the ability to feel with and for another being, is the sole genuine moral motive. The rest is egoism masquerading as virtue. For readers willing to have their moral certainties shaken, this is essential reading. It anticipates everything from Nietzsche's genealogy of morals to modern moral psychology, and bridges Western philosophy with Eastern thought in ways that still feel startling.
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“The assumption that animals are without rights and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.””
— Arthur Schopenhauer
“Compassion for animals is intimately associated with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man.””
— Arthur Schopenhauer
“Boundless compassion for all living beings is the surest and most certain guarantee of pure moral conduct, and needs no casuistry. Whoever is filled with it will assuredly injure no one, do harm to no one, encroach on no man's rights; he will rather have regard for every one, forgive every one, help every one as far as he can, and all his actions will bear the stamp of justice and loving-kindness.””
— Arthur Schopenhauer
“Mitleid mit den Thieren hängt mit der Güte des Charakters so genau zusammen, daß man zuversichtlich behaupten darf, wer gegen Thiere grausam ist, könne kein guter Mensch seyn.””
— Arthur Schopenhauer
“To talk of rational beings apart from man is as if we attempted to talk of heavy beings apart from bodies.””
— Arthur Schopenhauer
“The average individual, who thinks his conscience such an imposing structure, would be surprised, could he see of what it actually consists: probably of about one-fifth, fear of men; one-fifth, superstition; one-fifth, prejudice; one-fifth, vanity; and one-fifth, habit. So that in reality he is no better than the Englishman, who said quite frankly: "I cannot afford to keep a conscience.””
— Arthur Schopenhauer
“Originally, we are all inclined to injustice and violence, because our needs, desires, anger, and hatred immediately enter consciousness and thus have the jus primi occupantis””
— Arthur Schopenhauer
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Schopenhauer, Arthur. The Basis of Morality. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-basis-of-morality-908cfd90-850b-409c-8d1f-1e79059adab2.Schopenhauer, A. (1840). The Basis of Morality. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-basis-of-morality-908cfd90-850b-409c-8d1f-1e79059adab2Schopenhauer, Arthur. The Basis of Morality. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-basis-of-morality-908cfd90-850b-409c-8d1f-1e79059adab2.
