146 Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path
within ourselves. We may call this moral autonomy. We
then hear within ourselves the voice to which we must
submit. The expression of this voice isconscience.
Moral progress occurs when a person does not simply
accept the commandment of an outer or inner authority as
a motive for action, but rather strives to see why any giv-
en principle should work as a motive. This is to progress
from an authoritarian morality to action based on ethical
insight. At this level of morality, we consider the needs of
a moral life and allow our actions to be determined by
knowledge of them. Such needs are (1) the greatest pos-
sible welfare of all humanity, purely for the sake of that
welfare; (2) the progress of civilization or the moralevo-
lution of humanity to ever greater perfection; and (3) the
realization of individual moral goals that have been
grasped purely intuitively.
Thegreatest possible welfare of all humanity will nat-
urally be formulated differently by different people. This
phrase does not refer to a particular mental picture of such
welfare but to the idea that those individuals who recog-
nize this principle strive to do whatever they think will
most promote the welfare of all humanity.
For those who associate a feeling of pleasure with the
benefits of civilization,the progress of civilization turns
out to be a special case of the moral principle of greatest
possible welfare. But they will have to accept into the
bargain the demise and destruction of many things that
also contribute to the welfare of humanity. However, it is
also possible that someone could see ethical necessity in
the progress of civilization, quite apart from the feeling
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