The ideal element in morality.

Citation

Salter, W. M. (1889). The ideal element in morality. In W. M. Salter, Ethical religion (pp. 22-41). Boston, MA, US: Roberts Brothers.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/12993-002

Abstract

In this chapter Salter contends that religion, the only true religion--though it nowhere exists now--is but the blossoming out of morality; that morality is its root, instead of being a branch from the root of religion. The ideal view of morality does not rest upon idealism in philosophy, nor is moral idealism inconsistent with the utilitarian theory of the origin and sanction of moral ideas. Morality is in essence ideal. It is not what men do, but what they ought to do; not what they wish, but what they ought to wish. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)