The Basis of Morality: Arthur Schopenhauer

The Basis of Morality by Arthur Schopenhauer. Translated with Introduction and Notes by Arthur Brodrick Bullock. On the Basis of Morality is one of Arthur Schopenhauer's major works in ethics, in which he argues that morality stems from compassion. Schopenhauer begins with a criticism of Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals, which Schopenhauer considered to be the clearest explanation of Kantian ethics. Religions have promised a reward after death if a person behaved well. Governmental laws are motives for good behavior because they promise earthly rewards and punishments. Kant's Categorical imperative claimed that a person's own behavior should be in accordance with a universal law. All of these, however, are ultimately founded on selfish egoism. "If an action has as its motive an egoistic aim," wrote Schopenhauer, "it cannot have any moral worth." Schopenhauer's doctrine was that morality is based on "the everyday phenomenon of compassion,