October 28
Moral goodness alone is to be sought for its own sake; everything else has its value only through it. And propriety is nothing hidden — it is virtue made visible in conduct.
On Duties (freely rendered)
Listening mode
Moral goodness alone is to be sought for its own sake; everything else has its value only through it. And propriety is nothing hidden — it is virtue made visible in conduct.
Whether you do something for its own sake is hardest to tell when it pays off.
A fair decision earns you trust. Honesty spares you explanations later on. There is nothing wrong with such benefits. But they obscure the question of whether you would have acted the same way without them.
You can rarely sort out your reasons completely. Usually several lie on top of one another, and some of them you would rather not name first. Something is more likely to show itself where the advantage fails to appear: when no one notices, when it costs you something, or when an easier solution would do no discernible harm to anyone.
Even then you don't know for certain why you act as you do. Perhaps out of habit, perhaps because of an image of yourself you don't want to damage. But the fact that you hesitate at all in such situations already says something. Something in you does not measure the matter solely by what it brings in.
