ABSTRACT
Ethics may be related to metaphysics, the theory of the ultimate nature of reality, in various ways. In most natural sciences the law of causation in some form or other is implicitly accepted as a necessary postulate; but chemistry, when it postulates the existence of atoms, is accepting a hypothesis which makes its explanations clearer and more coherent, but without which chemistry would still be a true body of knowledge. Kant’s argument for the existence of God depended on his intuition that virtue ought to be accompanied by an appropriate amount of happiness. It must be admitted that this is a common judgement made by the human conscience, but that there is neither confirmation of its truth from our ordinary experience of life nor any natural intrinsic relation evident between the practice of goodness and the enjoyment of happiness.
