ABSTRACT
All ethical philosophies—except one—have this point at least in common: they all agree that ultimate good or value is to be found only in states of conscious life, that nothing else than such states or such life can be conceived as good in itself, for its own sake. The real ethical and social question is one of priority as between these. Is the person regarded by others as primarily an intrinsic value, such as they regard themselves, or is he primarily an extrinsic value; is he to them finally perhaps a mere machine, his value as person counting least, his value as means being the first or only consideration? The world is spoken of as a place where personality manifests itself, where souls are made, but the making is unreal after all; for nothing remains in the Absolute save that mysteriously detached “content” with which the self was filled, the “content” of a timeless being, and therefore nothing is gained.
