On the subject of moral freedom, as, upon the whole, in agreement with the view presented here: See
Green: Prolegomena to Ethics, pp. 90-117; 142-158. Bradley: Ethical Studies, ch. I; Caird: Phil. of Kant, Vol. II, Bk. II, ch. 3; Alexander: Moral Order and Progress, pp. 336-341.
And, for a view agreeing in part, Stephen: Science of Ethics, pp. 278-293.
For presentations of the freedom of indifference, see, Lotze: Practical Philosophy, ch. 3. Martineau: Op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 34-40. Calderwood: Handbook of Moral Philosophy.
PART II.
THE ETHICAL WORLD.
LIII.
The Reality of Moral Relations.
The habit of conceiving moral action as a certain kind of action, instead of all action so far as it really is action, leads us to conceive of morality as a highly desirable something which somehow ought to be brought into our lives, but which upon the whole is not. It gives rise to the habit of conceiving morality as a vague ideal which it is praiseworthy for the individual to strive for, but which depends wholly for its existence upon the individual's wish in the matter. Morality, that is, is considered as a relation existing between something which merely ought to be, on one hand, and the individual's choice, or his conscience on the other. This point of view has found typical expression in Bishop Butler's saying: "If conscience had might as it has right, it would rule the world."
But right is not such a helpless creature. It exists not in word but in power. The moral world is, here and now; it is a reality apart from the wishes, or failures to wish, of any given individual. It bears the same relation to the individual's activity that the 'physical world' does to his knowledge. Not till the individual has to spin the physical world out of his consciousness in order to know it, will it be necessary for him to create morality by his choice, before it can exist. As knowledge is mastery in one's self of the real world, the reproduction of it in self-consciousness, so moral action is the appropriation and vital self-expression of the values contained in the existing practical world.