{"collection":"philosophy-ethics","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/wikisource_On_the_Basis_of_Morality_Translator_s_Preface/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/wikisource_On_the_Basis_of_Morality_Translator_s_Preface","id":"wikisource_On_the_Basis_of_Morality_Translator_s_Preface","license":"Public Domain / CC-BY-SA (see source)","rights_basis":"wikisource_site_inclusion_policy","source":"wikisource","source_url":"https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/On_the_Basis_of_Morality/Translator's_Preface","summary":null,"tags":["Pages_with_translator","Subpages"],"text":"TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE\n\nTHIS translation was undertaken in the belief that\nthere are many English-speaking people who feel\nmore than a merely superficial interest in ethical\nresearch, but who may not read German with sufficient ease to make them care to take up the original.\nThe present Essay is one of the most important\ncontributions to Ethics since the time of Kant, and,\nas such, is indispensable to a thorough knowledge\nof the subject. Moreover, from whatever point of\nview it be regarded, whether the reader find, when\nhe closes the book, that his conviction harmonises\nwith the conclusion reached, or not\u00a0; it would be\ndifficult to find any treatise on Moral Science more\ncalculated to stimulate thought, and lift it out of\ninfantile imitation of some prescribed pattern. The\nbeliever in the Kantian, or any other, basis of Ethics,\ncould hardly measure the strength or the weakness\nof his own position more surely than by comparing\nit with the Schopenhauerian\u00a0; while he who is yet in search of a foundation will find much in the following pages to claim his attention.\n\nThose acquainted with the luminous imagery, the\nsubtle irony, the brusque and penetrating vigour of\nthe German, will doubtless admit that it is no easy\ntask to reduce Schopenhauer to adequate English\nprose; and if this has been attempted by the present\nwriter, no one can be more conscious than he of the\nmanifold shortcomings discoverable. But such as\nit is, the work is heartily offered to all who still\nfollow the true student's rule, \"Gladly wolde be lerne and gladly teche,\" with the single hope that it may\nhelp, however slightly, to widen their knowledge,\nand ripen their judgment.\n\nMy friend, R. E. Candy, Esq., I.C.S., has kindly\ngiven me information concerning several Indian\nnames.\n\nROME\u00a0: June, 1902.","title":"On the Basis of Morality/Translator's Preface","tradition":"philosophy-ethics","translated_text":null,"word_count":303}