Rosmini’s Theory of Ethics:
Some Considerations

1 The Moral Law

The moral law is a notion of the mind which we use for making a moral judgement on our human actions. For instance, I am forbidden to harm my neighbour but how do I judge whether an action is harmful or not? Clearly I compare my action with the notion of harm which I already possess and thus determine whether this action is harmful. If I had no idea of what harmful was, I could not possibly make a judgement. A notion or idea(21) is always the principle or rule of judgement, for judgements cannot be made without ideas, e.g. to make a judgement, that mountain is a high one, one must know what a mountain is and what height is.

Now what is the first moral law on which all other moral laws depend? This is the same as asking what is the first notion of the mind on which all others depend.

Rosmini explains the extraordinary and enlightening discovery he made when he was out walking one day:

It would be interesting to know what was going on in Rosmini’s mind when he discovered that the idea of being was ‘the ultimate in every concept’ which could be compared in importance with other great discoveries such as Newton’s discovery of gravity or Einstein’s theory of relativity. Be that as it may, he gives an example in his first great philosophical work the Nuovo Saggio.(23) Take the idea of a particular person, he says; we can leave aside everything which is proper to him/her and we are then left with the common idea of ‘human being’. But if we abstract the qualities proper to a human being we are left with the idea simply of ‘animal’. If we abstract the qualities proper to an animal, we are left with the idea of ‘vegetative body’. Leaving aside the qualities proper to a vegetative body, we arrive at the ‘idea of body in general’. This is still an idea and if finally we abstract all that constitutes ‘body’ we are left with the idea of indeterminate being.(24) We cannot go any further than this without ceasing to think, so the idea of being has no need of any other idea to be known; it is knowable through itself and is the source of all other ideas.

Rosmini examined how we have this basic idea and where it comes from. To cut the long story short he found that it could not come from the sensations we have of things. These are modifications of that fundamental feeling we have of ourselves, the feeling that marks me out from other individuals and makes my body mine and not yours. Sensations are particular to the individual. I cannot feel your toothache! But the ideas that we have are common to us both, e.g. we both know what a cat is, what a horse is, and so forth. Our mind too, is by its nature, individual and subjective. We cannot manufacture the idea of being because all the operations of the mind suppose it. Rosmini eliminates other alternatives(25) and arrives at the only possible explanation, namely, that it is innate in us. In other words it is present to us and contemplated by us from the very first moment of our existence. Rosmini holds that this idea of being, or ideal being, is given to us by God in the act by which God creates the human soul. It marks us out from non intelligent beings, enabling us to think as well as feel. It is clear that it is not to be identified with ourselves. It is objective and completely distinct from us, the human being. We are not responsible for it. It exists in an absolute way and is the measure of our knowledge.(26) Its function is to give the human subject the power to make intellective and rational acts. We have arrived at discovering this by reflection and abstraction and have done this consciously. But in doing so we have used this same idea of being spontaneously and instinctively, since it presides over all our intellectual activities.

In his Ethics Rosmini shows how the idea of being is the first moral law and the notion which we use to form all moral judgements. Since the moral law is a notion of the mind which we use for making a judgement about moral actions and since the idea of being is the notion on which all others depends and precedes them all, it follows that it is the ultimate notion with which we form moral judgements and which forms moral law.

Rosmini shows in the New Essay that the idea of universal being constitutes the light of reason. Reason is the faculty with which the human spirit applies the idea of being. Of course we can err in our reasoning, and often do, but the light of reason cannot err because it does not depend on us. Rosmini explains that this light is, ‘breathed into us by the Creator.’(27) We bear within us the foundation of all morality.

It is of the utmost importance to realise that the intellect in intuiting being is focusing its attention on an object different from itself. In other words the person who does the perceiving is different from what he or she perceives. The idea is objective and independent of the perceiver, the subject, but it is part of human nature nevertheless. Being is truth itself, absolutely unchangeable and necessary so the moral law can be expressed in the formula ‘in all that you do, follow the light of reason’. This is the most general formula in Ethics. Rosmini quotes several ecclesiastical writers to support his theory.

The laws governing morality then do not belong to the individual. They are objective norms to which we must conform in order that our actions be virtuous and in accord with the truth. For instance, the pursuit of pleasure is a subjective aim. Sometimes this will clash with what we would call ‘our moral code’. But how do we regard ‘our moral code’? Is it what we consider we should do? Or do we follow rules which are purely human and very often pragmatic? These are purely arbitrary arrangements arising from the realisation that rules are necessary but adapted to suit ourselves, favouring us and guaranteeing us the least inconvenience and maximum freedom to do what we like. The late Cardinal Basil Hume points to this in his talk, Searching for Purpose: God and the Future of our Society.(28)

Let us now sum up what we have so far considered:

1. The purpose of ethics is to make us good human beings. Our morality depends on an upright will.
2. Ethics displays, in an orderly way, the norms according to which we must act in order to live good and upright lives.
3. The most general moral law is: Do what is morally good and avoid what is morally evil.
4. The moral law is a notion of the mind used for making a judgement about the morality of human actions.
5. The first moral law and the principle of ethics is the idea of being.
6. The most general moral law in ethics can be expressed as, in all you do follow the light of reason.
7. The laws of morality are objective laws and independent of the subject who is obligated to follow them.

Notes

(21) Rosmini calls ‘an idea notion in so far as an idea makes me note, that is, know things. Thus the idea of harm is a notion because it allows me to note or know what actions are harmful.’ He calls, ‘an idea reason in so far as I can use the idea to reason, that is, as a principle for drawing some consequences from things noted or known. Thus the idea of harm is a reason because I use it to draw the consequences that if I act in such a way, I do harm’ (op. cit., note 1, p. 4).

(22) Principles of Ethics, n. 1.

(23) A New Essay on the Origin of Ideas (henceforth New Essay) published in 1830, the relevant part of which is translated by D. Cleary and T. Watson under the title of The Origin of Thought, Leominster, 1987, 398-470.

(24) Cf. op. cit., nn. 411-412

(25) The idea of being cannot come from the reflection on our sensations, if it is not contained in them to start with; nor can it come from the feeling we have of ourselves which is itself a sensation we have of ourselves. It does not begin to exist when we perceive something. We have no experience of not having this idea and then suddenly of having it. It would be absurd to believe that God created this idea in us every time we made a judgement. Nor can it emanate from ourselves as its characteristics are diametrically opposed.

(26) Rosmini enumerates other characteristics of ideas, namely, possibility, simplicity, unity, universality, necessity, immutability, eternity, and peculiar to the idea of being, indeterminateness. These characteristics are explained in his New Essay, cf. The Origin of Thought, nn. 415-434.

(27) Principles of Ethics , n. 7.

(28) ‘Our visitor could not fail to notice the relentless emphasis on the individual in our culture and society. On advertising hoardings everywhere, she would read the underlying message that life is about satisfying what an individual needs or wants. Our visitor would be struck by the meaning of the term "moral" in such an approach to life. For its meaning often seems to be reduced to simply "personal" morality, or just sexual morality. She would find a widespread reluctance to use the words "right" and "wrong"; a fear of seeming to be judgemental or of "imposing" values on other people. She would also detect the supreme value given to individual autonomy… There is however an attitude towards the truths of religion which can be very undermining. It is called relativism. Relativism does not simply say that the claims of religion are false. Instead it attempts to short circuit any discussion about truth. The relativist says "There is no truth, there are only opinions. You do your thing; and I’ll do mine"… Ultimately, of course, such a totally relativist attitude to truth contradicts itself. We cannot avoid making claims to objective truth: even the relativist wants to say that relativism is true, and not merely his opinion.’ Cardinal Basil Hume, Our restless society: finding a cure, Fifteenth Arnold Goodman Charity Lecture, London. Extract from the Tablet, 13 June 1998. (Italics mine). The Cardinal mentions also the importance of accepting ‘objective moral norms.’