Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, social, and domestic capacities. / by George Combe.

  • Combe, George, 1788-1858.
Date:
MDCCCXL
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Moral philosophy, or the duties of man considered in his individual, social, and domestic capacities. / by George Combe. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    187/444 (page 165)
    society : the domestic circle is too contracted for the pur- pose. The faculty of Conscientiousness, in particular, seems necessarily to imply the existence of the individual in the social state. To give rise to the exercise of justice, and the fulfilment of duty, there must necessarily be two par- ties,—the one to perform, and the other to receive. Con- scientiousness would be as little useful to a solitary human being, as speech to a hermit; while, even in the domestic circle, the faculties of Benevolence, Philoprogenitiveness, and Veneration, are more directly called into play than it. The head of the family bestows through affection and bounty ; the dependents receive with gratitude and re- spect ; and the feeling of duty, on the part of either, rarely mingles its influence, when these other and more direct principles play with great and spontaneous energy, xhe sphere in which Conscientiousness is most directly exercised, is that in which the interests and inclinations of equals come into competition. Conscientiousness, aided by intellect, then determines the rights of each, and in- spires them with the feeling that it is their duty to do so much, and to demand no more. Phrenology enables us to Prove that Conscientiousness is not a factitious senti- ment, reared up in society, as many moral philosophers and metaphysicians have taught,—but a primitive power, having its specific organ. This fact is essential to my argument; and in my “ System of Phrenology,” I have exhibited the evidence by which it is established. The adaptation of the intellectual faculties to society, is equally conspicuous. The faculty of Language implies the presence of intelligent beings, with whom we may communicate by speech. The faculties of Causality and Comparison, which are the fountains of reasoning, imply our co-existence with other intellectual beings, with whose perceptions and experience we may compare our own.