Phanomenologie des sittlichen Bewusstseins

Eduard von Hartmann published the first edition of his Phenomenology of the Moral Conscience in 1879, and it was never entirely republished since 1922 (the third posthumous edition). Hartmann's ethics incorporates idealist and evolutionary elements in its distinctive brand of a metaphysical outlook and a creative blend of Schopenhauerian monism and pessimism with a Hegelian framework of cognitive development from unconscious moral instincts to the highest degree of ethical reflection. His system is not the result of bad eclecticism, but of a clearly argued exposition of the plurality of moral principles, including empirical observations, from egoism, moral authority, moral taste and moral emotions (like pity, piety, sense of duty), to the principles of practical reason, moral teleology and metaphysical identity of all individuals in the same essence, which constitutes the ultimate foundation of the cultural struggle [Kulturkampf], supported by a furious attack against ecclesiastical authority on the one side, and subjectivism and nihilism in Stirner and Nietzsche on the other side. Hartmann's work is also considerable for its combination of evolutionary principles with a teleological vision of perfection. His ethics is an outstanding and comprehensive approach, which influenced Max Scheler's phenomenology of values. German text.