Lesesaal

The Justification of the Good: An Essay on Moral Philosophy

Vladimir Solovyov

His great treatise on ethics, published in 1897 and reissued in enlarged form in 1899. It starts from three primary data of moral consciousness — shame, pity and reverence, which govern the relation to what is lower, to equals and to what is higher — and builds from them an ethics autonomous with respect to positive religion that nevertheless leads to the absolute good. The second part applies the principle to the person, the nation, law, economics, war and capital punishment.