Project Gutenberg 2014-02-16 Public domain in the USA. 1470 Schopenhauer, Arthur 1788 1860 Bullock, Arthur Brodrick 1860 The Basis of Morality Wikipedia page about this book: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Basis_of_Morality Produced by Marc D'Hooghe (Images generously made available by the Internet Archive - Cornell University) "The Basis of Morality" by Arthur Schopenhauer is a philosophical treatise written in the early 19th century. In this work, Schopenhauer explores the foundations of ethics, challenging established moral philosophies and presenting his critique, particularly of Immanuel Kant's moral principles. The book investigates the motivations behind human actions, aiming to uncover genuine moral incentives beyond the philosophical constraints previously defined by Kantian ethics, and argues for compassion as the bedrock of moral behavior. The opening of this treatise lays the groundwork for a thorough examination of the moral landscape that philosophers have navigated and often conflicted over. Schopenhauer begins by posing a significant question about the nature of morality and the differing views among philosophers regarding the basis of moral actions. He presents the challenge of providing a non-theological foundation for ethics that is independent from divine commandments yet engages with human consciousness and subjective experiences. By critiquing Kant's ethical framework, he highlights the limitations of the Categorical Imperative and begins to define an alternative that roots moral behavior in compassion rather than duty or obligation, setting the stage for an exploration of ethics that runs deeply through human experience and behavior. (This is an automatically generated summary.) Reading ease score: 52.0 (10th to 12th grade). Somewhat difficult to read. en Ethics B Text Category: Philosophy & Ethics 559204 2025-07-18T08:23:25.181769 text/html 545164 2024-10-24T02:45:24 text/html 294250 2025-07-18T08:23:35.277698 application/epub+zip 300723 2025-07-18T08:23:28.443725 application/epub+zip 297079 2025-07-18T08:23:26.947919 application/epub+zip 537240 2025-07-18T08:23:39.989656 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 490946 2025-07-18T08:23:34.200736 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 463903 2022-09-20T13:53:12.006445 application/x-mobipocket-ebook 483154 2025-07-18T08:23:24.270756 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 463303 2024-10-24T02:45:24 text/plain; charset=us-ascii 17497 2025-07-18T08:23:40.122660 application/rdf+xml 13831 2025-07-18T08:23:27.458720 image/jpeg 3757 2025-07-18T08:23:27.201732 image/jpeg 273489 2025-07-18T08:23:25.221738 application/octet-stream application/zip Archives containing the RDF files for *all* our books can be downloaded at https://book.klll.cc/wiki/Gutenberg:Feeds#The_Complete_Project_Gutenberg_Catalog de.wikipedia en.wikipedia