Abstract

That human beings autonomously attempt to decide whether their actions are good or evil appears to be a late historical phenomenon. A highly-developed European individual can bring into the light of clear consciousness and morally evaluate not just important decisions, but also those primarily instinctual and habitual reactions of which his life for the most part consists. However, human actions appear more compulsive as their subjects belong to earlier historical formations. The capacity to subject instinctual reactions to moral criticism and to change them on the basis of individual considerations could only develop with the growing differentiation of society.