Underthesecircumstances，tosaythatallsuchpersonsactrightly——intheobjectivesense——becausetheirmaximsallconformtoKant’sfundamentalrule，wouldobliteratealtogetherthedistinctionbetweensubjectiveandobjectiverightness；itwouldamounttoaffirmingthatwhateveranyonethinksrightisso，unlessheisinerrorastothefactsofthecasetowhichhisjudgmentapplies。Butsuchanaffirmationisinflagrantconflictwithcommonsense；andwouldrendertheconstructionofascientificcodeofmoralityfutile:astheveryobjectofsuchacodeistosupplyastandardforrectifyingmen’sdivergentopinions。
Wemayconcludethenthatthemoraljudgmentswhichthepresentmethodattemptstosystematiseareprimarilyandforthemostpartintuitionsoftherightnessorgoodnessorthereverseofparticularkindsofexternaleffectsofhumanvolition，presumedtobeintendedbytheagent，butconsideredindependentlyoftheagent’sownviewastotherightnessorwrongnessofhisintention；thoughthequalityofmotives，asdistinctfromintentions，hasalsotobetakenintoaccount。
Butthequestionmayberaised，whetheritislegitimatetotakeforgrantedasIhavehithertobeendoingtheexistenceofsuchintuitions？And，nodoubt，therearepersonswhodeliberatelydenythatreflectionenablesthemtodiscoveranysuchphenomenonintheirconsciousexperienceasthejudgmentorapparentperceptionthatanactisinitselfrightorgood，inanyothersensethanthatofbeingtherightorfitmeanstotheattainmentofsomeulteriorend。Ithink，however，thatsuchdenialsarecommonlyrecognisedasparadoxical，andopposedtothecommonexperienceofcivilisedmen:——atanyrateifthepsychologicalquestion，astotheexistenceofsuchmoraljudgmentsorapparentperceptionsofmoralqualities，iscarefullydistinguishedfromtheethicalquestionastotheirvalidity，andfromwhatwemaycallthe`psychogonical’questionastotheirorigin。Thefirstandsecondofthesequestionsaresometimesconfounded，owingtoanambiguityintheuseoftheterm``intuition’’；
whichhassometimesbeenunderstoodtoimplythatthejudgmentorapparentperceptionsodesignatedistrue。Iwishthereforetosayexpressly，thatbycallinganyaffirmationastotherightnessorwrongnessofactions``intuitive’’，Idonotmeantoprejudgethequestionastoitsultimatevalidity，whenphilosophicallyconsidered:Ionlymeanthatitstruthisapparentlyknownimmediately，andnotastheresultofreasoning。Iadmitthepossibilitythatanysuch``intuition’’mayturnouttohaveanelementoferror，whichsubsequentreflectionandcomparisonmayenableustocorrect；
justasmanyapparentperceptionsthroughtheorganofvisionarefoundtobepartiallyillusoryandmisleading:indeedthesequelwillshowthatIholdthistobetoanimportantextentthecasewithmoralintuitionscommonlysocalled。