Moral because of emotion
I am moral because that’s how I feel and I have a natural inclination not to steal. I am mentally and emotionally incapable of stealing from something.
My question is, is this a problem because morality should be based on God?
Or shouldn’t I be interested?
We learned from Rabbi Kant that an action is moral only if it is done for the sake of and on behalf of morality. And I have elaborated on this in several places. But it is clear that there is no need to extinguish the natural moral emotion, and if you do the action because of it, it is fine, as long as it is clear that you would act in this way even without this emotion. In other words, you need to make sure that you have such a moral obligation that will cause you to act in this way even without the natural emotion. But there is no need to extinguish the natural emotion. And these are the words of the Maimonides in the sixth of eight chapters. See in column 631.
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