This analysis foreshadows Sulzer's later position that the enjoyment of art is of immediate moral value because it directly contributes to our happiness, which is the ultimate object of morality, and is also of indirect moral value because it can enliven and thereby make more effective our knowledge of the general precepts of morality, and is indeed the best instrument for that end.
In ancient Buddhism, lay persons were encouraged, but not obliged, to commit themselves to observe these Five Precepts of morality.
1960-69: The Vienna Actionists, a loose-knit group of anti-commodity artists, came together frequently to make an art of transgressive action that challenged the precepts of reason, morality, and belief systems, including political ideology.
The way this works is similar to how the realization of impermanence, suffering, and no-self (wisdom) in Hinayana Buddhism is dependent on achievement of concentration which is itself dependent upon the practice of morality (keeping of the precepts).
The third method is variously called dogmatic or intuitional morality, which is somewhat ambiguously construed as either the (mostly negative) precepts of common-sense morality or the somewhat more refined version of these set out in the theories of such moral theorists as Whewell or Henry Calderwood (Whewell, 1864, Calderwood, 1876, and Donagan, 1977, 1992).
The general background of this doctrine is the recognition of the two faces of morality under the concepts of "precepts" and "counsels".
Further, by rejecting any double standard of morality and the distinction between counsel and precept, Pascal aligned himself with those who believe the ideal of evangelical perfection to be inseparable from the Christian life.
It would be possible to include these paradigm examples of moral precepts, e.g., do not kill, do not lie, and help the needy, in the normative definition of morality, but it not necessary to do so, because the proposed definition is sufficient to guarantee that these paradigm moral precepts will be part of morality.
This view of morality as concerning that which is most important allows those features related to religious practices and precepts, or those features related to customs and traditions, e.g., purity and sanctity, to be more important than avoiding and preventing harm.
It is the highest form of morality".
