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preface The point of view of this essay is a purely theoretical one. Just as the geologist begins by seeking out and describing different formations and then inquires into the causes from which they have arisen, so too the author has begun by taking up moral phenomena from experience,and has then gone into the history of their beginning, as far as his abilities allowed. No doubt what he gives is not so much a systematic work as a collection of individual observations. If he were blamed for that he would, making a virtue of necessity, defend himself in the following manner. Every genuine thinker is an occasional thinker: ideas come only on occasion, and hence not about every aspect of a subject.Anyone who wants to treat a subject exhaustively must therefore often think ad hoc, and often force his thoughts. There are gaps in this essay, but gaps are better than stopgaps. ...

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