ABSTRACT
An enquiry into the function of ‘right’ in moral judgments seems therefore vindicated as a valid and legitimate way of detecting the nature of the ‘right’. The moral verdict of ‘right’ rests in the last instance on a test of accordance or non accordance with a law. The practical primacy of morality over all other values is the constitutive factor of the moral universe. Therefore to reject the practical primacy of ethics is to exclude oneself from the moral sphere, to put oneself beyond the ethical pale. The negative form of most ethical laws is not an accident but a recognition of the intrinsic nature of the ‘right’. Even where laws are defined positively like in ‘love thy neighbour’ their moral application is purely regulative. The austere and aloof nature of moral perfection should on the contrary, refuse to regard itself as in any way needing or deserving happiness.
