Kant

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1882 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XIV. THE PROBLEMS OP ETHICS. He terms Art and Practical have each a stricter and a joser application. In the use of the word Art, which we have just been considering, it is employed to denote a mode of production which contains a certain personal siduum not amenable to rule or reducible to formula}. rn the looser sense, it is applied to any application of jiowledge to practical purposes, and simply denotes the production of an object according to rules or precepts. Similarly, the term Practical, in its wider sense, denotes the mode of laying down a theory, in which the theoretical principles are translated into precepts declaring that, if a certain result is desired, a certain means must bo adopted . In the narrower sense of the term Practical, it denotes something mi generis--viz., a law or direction which is not a mere corollary from some theoretical proposition, but is an entirely original and unconditioned command which appeals to no external considerations or ulterior consequences to justify or explain it, but claims nqualified, and, what is more, willing obedience. The ommand in question is that of the Moral Law. Man is, in one aspect, a member of creation, a link in" the great chain of nature. As such he presents himself with peculiar characters--some unique, others shared by several objects in nature. Under the latter head comes the fact that he is an organised being. Amongst the objects of nature, there are some exhibiting features which compel us to regard them as in a strict and peculiar way totals, with members in mutual interdependence, and all contributing to constitute the whole. In the case of these bodies, which we term organisms, instead of looking at the whole as a mere aggregation of the parts, we have to look...