[p. 270]
|270| also towards itself, is bad.
Explanation. Opposed to the good is evil, but also badness. Evil implies that it happens with resolution of the will. It thus has over badness the formal advantage of a strength of will, which is also a condition of the good. Badness, by contrast, is something will-less. The bad man follows his inclination and thereby neglects duties. The bad man too would be content if the duties were fulfilled, only he does not have the will to master his inclinations or habits.
§ 66
What services we have to render, or can render, to other human beings depends on contingent relations in which we stand with them and on the particular circumstances in which we ourselves find ourselves. If we are in a position to do a service to another, we have only to consider this, that he is a human being, and his need.
Explanation. The first condition for giving help to others consists in that we have a right to it, namely to regard them as persons in distress and to act towards them as such. The help must therefore happen with their will. This presupposes a certain acquaintance or familiarity. The needy person as such is unequal to the one who is not needy. It depends therefore on his will whether he wants to appear as needy. He will want this if he is convinced that I, notwithstanding this inequality, treat and regard him as my equal. – Secondly, I must have the means in hand to help him. – Finally there can also be cases where his need is manifest and in it lies, as it were, the declaration of his will that he be helped.
§ 67
The duty of universal love of mankind extends more closely to those with whom we stand in the relation of
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