Man’s Law of Life

Abstract

The concept “man’s law of life” can be understood in two senses. It can be conceived in the ethical sense as the moral law based on the conscience, on the moral consciousness in the Kantian sense. Then it is the autonomous law of practical life, the “practical Reason” (praktische Vernunft). It concerns all human behaviour; all its aspects are subjected to a moral law. But in the religious sense the law of life is determined hetero-nomously (from outside man); it is founded on the divine will. Now the question is what relation these different conceptions of man’s law of life have to each other. What is the judgment of religion concerning the moral law? What place is granted to it in religious life — central, less important, or no place at all? It is important for our knowledge of man’s religious disposition that we become familiar with these types, for they very largely determine the religious attitude or the character of every religion. There is much evidence that this subject has again and again occupied the attention of the adherents of the most diverse religions. And the phenomenological analysis of the relation between religion and ethics is made especially interesting by the fact that in this respect Christianity also represents a special type.