Synthesized answer
Schopenhauer's metaphysical explanation of the primal ethical phenomenon lies in the transcendental reality behind phenomena, specifically the unity of life that is also noumenal [Passage 2]. This transcendental reality is the essential constitution of the Thing in itself [Passage 1]. The ethical difference between individuals is caused by the transcendentally free act of the Intelligible Character, which is the Will as Thing in itself outside of phenomena [Passage 1]. The Empirical Character is a reflection of this Intelligible Character, perceived through the forms of Time, Space, and Causality [Passage 1].
The primal ethical phenomenon is the breakdown of the partition separating being from being, leading to the identification of the non-ego with the ego. This occurs when compassion is stirred by another's pain, causing their weal and woe to affect the self in a similar way to one's own [Passage 5]. While this phenomenon is the ultimate basis of morality, its metaphysical explanation is considered a matter of Metaphysics rather than Ethics [Passage 3]. The passages suggest that this transcendental explanation lies outside the immediate scope of the question concerning the…
Synthesized from the book passages below. Chat with the book on Feynman for follow-up.
From the book
ys Schopenhauer) was only satisfactorily explained by Kant's doctrine of the Intelligible and Empirical Character. (Cf. Part II., Chapter VIII.) According to this, the ethical difference between man and man is an original and ultimate datum, caused by the transcendentally free act of the Intelligible Character, that is, the Will, as Thing in itself, outside phaenomena; the Empirical Character being, so to say, the reflection of the Intelligible, mirrored through the functions of our perceptive faculty, namely, Time, Space, and Causality. Hence the former, while manifested in plurality…
on the ground of the =identity= of man, so far as he is =noumenal=, with the transcendental Reality behind phaenomena. The crude threats of punishment and promises of reward, the stern Moral Law, poised in mid air,--these hypotheses, and all their varieties (whose function is in reality nothing else but to check Egoism), are seen to be due to the intellect's imperfect comprehension of, or rather, its vague groping after, the transcendental unity of life, however individualised and differentiated as a phaenomenon in Time and Space.[8] It thus becomes apparent that the position…
a untouched, and first to inquire whether all acts of voluntary justice and true loving-kindness really arise from it. If so, our problem will be solved, for we shall have found the ultimate basis of morality, and shown that it lies in human nature itself. This foundation, however, in its turn cannot form a problem of Ethics, but rather, like every other ultimate fact as such, of Metaphysics. Only the solution, that the latter offers of the primary ethical phaenomenon, lies outside the limits of the question put by the Danish Royal Society, which is concerned solely with the basis;…
OD II. THE METAPHYSICAL GROUNDWORK JUDICIUM REGIAE DANICAE SCIENTIARUM SOCIETATIS TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. This translation was undertaken in the belief that there are many English-speaking people who feel more than a merely superficial interest in ethical research, but who may not read German with sufficient ease to make them care to take up the original. The present Essay is one of the most important contributions to Ethics since the time of Kant, and, as such, is indispensable to a thorough knowledge of the subject. Moreover, from whatever point of view it…
n action springs therefrom, has it moral value; and all conduct that proceeds from any other motive whatever has none. When once compassion is stirred within me, by another's pain, then his weal and woe go straight to my heart, exactly in the same way, if not always to the same degree, as otherwise I feel only my own. Consequently the difference between myself and him is no longer an absolute one. No doubt this operation is astonishing, indeed hardly comprehensible. It is, in fact, the great mystery of Ethics, its original phaenomenon, and the boundary stone, past which only…