After I produce a Video typos get pointed out. So I am posting the text for the Chapter 12 Part 2 video "Moral Imagination" now when corrections can be easily made.
Moral Intuition: the capacity to experience for yourself the particular moral principle for each single situation.
Moral Imagination: the ability to imaginatively condense a moral principle into a concrete mental picture of the action to be carried out.
Moral Technique: the ability to transform the world according to a moral imagination without violating the natural laws by which these are connected.
Ethical Norms
Some people have tried to retain the standardized character of moral laws.
They seek out moral laws already existing in the world, inherited from the past, and apply them.
As individuals we create our own moral laws. We cannot apply them until we have created them.
The content of moral laws are newly created for each situation, not inherited.
As a moral being, I am an individual and have laws entirely my own.
Traditional Moral Doctrine
Later moral ideas evolve out of earlier, but ethics cannot draw forth a single new moral idea out of earlier ones.
The ethical standard cannot start, like a law of nature, by being known,… but only by being created.
It is absurd to measure what we produce through our ‘moral imagination’ against the standard of Traditional Moral Doctrines.
Ancestral Moral Ideas
It is true that an individual’s ethical ideas have evolved out of those of their ancestors,…
but it is equally true that individuals are ethically barren if they lack moral ideas of their own.
Supernatural Influence
Absolutely new ethical ideas are developed by moral imagination.
The moral essence of an individual’s will cannot be explained by supernatural influence like divine world rule from without.
Individual morality cannot be fully explained by a particular revelation in time.
Individual morality cannot be fully explained by the appearance of God on earth (Christ).
What happens in a human being, through all this, becomes ethical only when, in experience, individuals make it their own.
Free Moral Life
What is natural in us cannot be limited to human organic urges, for spirit is found within nature.
The life of moral self-determinism is the spiritual continuation of organic life.
Whether an action is a free one, we determine by observing the action and discovering the ethical idea.
Image Of Ideal Intuition
The perfect form of human action has freedom as its characteristic quality.
Freedom must be attributed to the human will, in so far as the will brings to realization purely ideal intuitions.
Such intuitions arise not from an external necessity, but are grounded in themselves.
We feel the action to be free when we find it is the ‘reflection’ of an ideal intuition. In this characteristic feature lies its freedom.
Determine Our Motives
Whether I am able to transform my idea into reality depends on external circumstances and my technical skill.
To be free means being able to determine, by moral imagination, those mental pictures (motives) which underlie the action.
I am free only when I produce these mental pictures myself, not when all I can do is carry out motives which someone else has implanted in me.
Free beings are those who can ‘will’ what they themselves hold to be right.
Those who do anything other than what they want must be driven to do it by motives that do not lie within them. Their action is unfree.
The true freedom: to determine for ourselves the motive of our will.
Enslaved Spirit
External powers may prevent me from doing as I will, but that is only to condemn me to do nothing.
Not until they enslave my spirit, drive my motives out of my head, and replace them with their own, do they really intend to make me unfree.
This is why religious institutions attack not only my actions, but especially the ‘impure’ thoughts, that is, the motives of my action.
A church makes its followers unfree when it declares all motives impure which it has not authorized.
A church or any other community produces genuine slaves when its priests or teachers make themselves into advisers of conscience.
The followers become slaves when they depend on their leaders for the motives of their actions.
The right to call an act of will ‘free’ is established by the awareness that your ideal intuition is realizing itself in the deed.
Moral Intuition: the
Moral Intuition: the capacity to experience for yourself the particular moral principle for each single situation.
Moral Imagination: the ability to imaginatively condense a moral principle into a concrete mental picture of the action to be carried out. "Split infinitive".Try:"the ability in the imagination to condense...etc" Or"to condense in the imagination"
Moral Technique: the ability to transform the world according to a moral imagination without violating the natural laws by which these are connected. "mis-related pronoun"ie "these" is plural and refers to "a moral imagination" which is singular. Try: "moral imaginations"? Pronouns are best used to refer to the first previous concrete noun. In the above case the pronoun refers two nouns back. The plural of "natural laws" seems to have spread, disconnecting the pronoun from its singular subject .
Ethical Norms
Some people have tried to retain the standardized character of moral laws.
They [I suggest "Such people" not "they" here , because of above.] seek out moral laws already existing in the world, [add "rules"] inherited from the past, and apply them.
As individuals we create our own moral laws. [ I suggest a reversal: "Until we have created them, we cannot apply them"]We cannot apply them until we have created them.
The content of moral laws are newly created for each situation, not inherited. [ Fix subject/verb agreement: substitute either "contents" or "is".]
As a moral being, I am an individual and have laws entirely my own.
Traditional Moral Doctrine
Later moral ideas evolve out of earlier ["ones"?], but ethics cannot draw forth a single new moral idea out of earlier ones. [I'm not clear from this what you mean .Suggest a rewrite.]
The ethical standard cannot start, like a law of nature, by being known,… but only by being created. ["The ethical standard" meaning ?- As its such a strong negation you make it must be very clear exactly what it is that you are saying is impossible.. Once again I think a rewrite/]
It is absurd to measure what we produce through our ‘moral imagination’ against the standard of Traditional Moral Doctrines. [Why the caps? I suggest to lose them.Same with quotes on "moral imagination"
Ancestral Moral Ideas
It is true that an individual’s ethical ideas have evolved out of those of their ancestors,…
but it is equally true that individuals are ethically barren if they lack moral ideas of their own.
Supernatural Influence
Absolutely new ethical ideas are developed by moral imagination.
The moral essence of an individual’s will cannot be explained by supernatural influence like divine world rule from without. [suggest: "the individual's"]
Individual morality cannot be fully explained by a particular revelation in time.
Individual morality cannot be fully explained by the appearance of God on earth (Christ). (lose bracket)
What happens in a human being, through all this, becomes ethical only when, in experience, individuals make it their own. [make what their own?] I get the drift of course but not at first reading. Rewrite?
Free Moral Life
What is natural in us cannot be limited to human organic urges, for spirit is found within nature. [this last clause (for spirit...) seems like a non-sequitur unless "spirit" is deduced retrospectively to mean "nature",which is a bit of a leap of nomenclature for a neutral reader]
The life of moral self-determinism is the spiritual continuation of organic life. [suggest : "Human moral self-determinism is infact the spiritual continuation of mere organic life".]
Whether an action is a free one, we determine by observing the action and discovering the ethical idea.
Image of (lower case "o") Ideal Intuition
The perfect form of human action has freedom as its characteristic quality.
Freedom must be attributed to the human will, in so far as the will brings to realization purely ideal intuitions.
Such intuitions arise not from an external necessity, but are grounded in themselves.
We feel the action to be free when we find it is the ‘reflection’ of an ideal intuition. In this characteristic feature lies its freedom. [Quotes on "reflection"? Quotes like these in an expository piece are confusing as what is within them can mean absolutely anything to a first time reader. It doesn't further their experience of connecting ideas within the text with cinfidence.
Determine Our Motives
Whether I am able to transform my idea into reality depends on external circumstances and my technical skill.
To be free means being able to determine, by moral imagination, those mental pictures (motives) which underlie the action. [lose the bracket"(motives)" . A neutral reader has no reason to suddenly accept your equation of motives and mental picture without considerable prior context or reflection. perhaps: "mental pictures of the motives" or "those motives in the form of mental pictures"
I am free only when I produce these mental pictures myself, not when all I can do is carry out motives which someone else has implanted in me.
Free beings are those who can ‘will’ what they themselves hold to be right. [once again those quotes on "will"! In quotes Its Humpty Dumpty time with that word "will" and then the whole sentence becomes enigmatic.. Leave'em out, I say, as there is no chance to clarify.]
Those who do anything other than what they want must be driven to do it by motives that do not lie within them. Their action is unfree.
The true freedom: to determine for ourselves the motive of our will.
Enslaved Spirit
External powers may prevent me from doing as I will, but that is only to condemn me to do nothing.
Not until they enslave my spirit, drive my motives out of my head, and replace them with their own, do they really intend to make me unfree.
This is why religious institutions attack not only my actions, but especially the ‘impure’ thoughts, that is, the motives of my action.
A church makes its followers unfree when it declares all motives impure which it has not authorized.
A church or any other community produces genuine slaves when its priests or teachers make themselves into advisers of conscience.
The followers become slaves when they depend on their leaders for the motives of their actions.
The right to call an act of will ‘free’ is established by the awareness that your ideal intuition is realizing itself in the deed.
Good job Bryn. I didn't
Good job Bryn. I didn't know I was so ignorant about grammar. I will incorporate most of your suggestions into the video text page but the video is to far down the production process to change. Because my computer can no longer run the video editing program without freezing I am waiting to use someone else's computer so I can finish the next video.
I am planning to do a new revised translation of The Philosophy of Freedom because the existing translations, while they all have something good about them, tend to make the book more confusing than it should be. A new revised translation is desperately needed. I have a unique perspective because I know the underlieing outline of the book.
Seeing how ignorant I am in basic grammar I thought maybe it should be an open project welcoming others to contribute to the translation. I would have to have the final say otherwise I don't know how it could be done but I have worked with other writers before and it seemed to work. The new translation would be freely distributed or sold, unless someone sued. The profits or donations could support getting the word out about POF. What do you think?
Phew! Thanks Tom...
...I was afraid I might have been perceived as merely indulging in pedantry at your expense. Its not ignorance of grammar that's the problem (what problem?)really Tom; its just part of the usual "getting words on paper" process. I wrote a couple of books and worked on a newspaper decades ago and was struck by the way getting stuff in print is a team job. Researching, noting, creating, reworking, editing, fact-checking-then all the nutsnbolts of printing are all totally different and to some extent mutually exclusive disciplines; to acomplish one one has, quite legitimately, to fudge the others No one can do it all. I think the most important bit is the enthusiasm to create bit. Sub-editing ,such as I did above, is little more than pedantry, to tell the truth. Thanks for the good work.
I like your idea about a bootleg PoF! And yes you should co-ordinate it and have final say. otherwise we would end up in a Wikipedia situation. Now ther'es pedantry for you!
Love
Bryn
Oh and....
A friend of mine RICHARD BUNZLE has just published a book called IN SEARCH OF THINKING. Its a damn fine effort at a fresh yet not dumbed down reworking of the ideas in PoF. Have you read it? I recommend it unreservedly. Richard is so modest in himself and yet it is plain from his book that he is a master of some very complex philosophy! As they say around here:"Eeee, there's nowt so funny as folk!"
Bryn