It
is not so much the mere formal conception of right, but rather that of
a universal and equal reciprocal compulsion as harmonizing with it,
and reduced under general laws, that makes representation of that
conception possible. But just as those conceptions presented in
dynamics are founded upon a merely formal representation of pure
mathematics as presented in geometry, reason has taken care also to
provide the understanding as far as possible with intuitive
presentations a priori in behoof of a construction of the conception
of right. The right in geometrical lines (rectum) is opposed, as the
straight, to that which is curved and to that which is oblique. In the
first opposition, there is involved an inner quality of the lines of
such a nature that there is only one straight or right line possible
between two given points. In the second case, again, the positions
of two intersecting or meeting lines are of such a nature that there
can likewise be only one line called the perpendicular, which is not
more inclined to the one side than the other, and it divides space
on either side into two equal parts. After the manner of this analogy,
the science of right aims at determining what every one shall have
as his own with mathematical exactness; but this is not to be expected
in the ethical science of virtue, as it cannot but allow a certain
latitude for exceptions.
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