Merit

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The merit is a person granted whose actions or work on their duties a special addition value is attributed morally, especially if they have been provided in good faith without regard to the consequences for the personal fate. Gaining merit is also used to mean doing something good beyond the accepted norm. (see supererogation )

Voluntariness is emphasized on both sides: The rewarding act, like the reward, cannot be demanded, which is praised. This has to do with the old European notions of favor or grace .

Immanuel Kant differentiated the "sour" merit and the "sweet" merit. The latter makes the deserving happy through his own actions ( cf. satisfaction ), the reward of the former is ingratitude .

A German proverb reads: His crown to merit. In the terms " Order of Merit " and especially " Pour le Mérite " the word appears directly. Also in use is the solemn formula: She [he] has done something.

See also

literature

  • Michael Hampe and Robert Schnepf (eds.): Baruch de Spinoza. Ethics presented in geometric order . Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-05-004126-9 , here section 4 “On human bondage, or the power of affects”.

Web links

Wiktionary: Merit  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. Immanuel Kant: Metaphysics of Morals . Edited by JH von Kirchmann. Heimann, Berlin 1870, p. 225.