ading and delusive may lead us to have nothing whatsoever
to do with morals. The individual may decide simply
to employ his superior insight in the exploitation of other people.
It is something of this point of view that is expressed
in the rampant individualism of Nietzsche and Max Stirner.
The customary morality is meant for slaves; the Superman
must stride above the signs and shibboleths by which men
are led, and create himself a morality more adequate to his
own superb and insolent welfare.

For the reconstruction of a morality more adequate than the
prevailing codes, more is demanded than merely a reflective
criticism of prevailing standards. Where reflection
goes no further than this, the net result is merely cynicism
and libertinism. For moral progress there is needed "a person
who is individual in choice, in feeling, in responsibility,
and at the same time social in what he regards as good, in his
sympathies and in his purposes."

REFLECTIVE RECONSTRUCTION OF MORAL STANDARDS. The second
stage of reflection upon morals consists in the reconstruction
of moral standards, in a deliberate discovery of codes by
which men can live together happily. It attempts to establish
standards of action which are enforced and recommended
not because they have been current and are currently
approved, but because they give promise, upon critical
examination, of contributing to human happiness. It must be
recalled here that reflective morality is not a substitute for
action based upon instinct or custom. It merely modifies these
types of action in the light of the desirable consequences which
would result from such modification.

The establishment of reflective standards is limited by two
general conditions. The first, previously mentioned, is that
human beings come into the world with certain fixed tendencies
to act. These original impulses may be obscured,
but cannot be abolished. Secondly, reflection upon morals
always must occur in a given social situation, that is, in a
situation where certain habits of mind, emotion and action,
are already in operation. Moral standards are not fresh
constructions; they are _reconstructions_. We may want to
_change_ current customs and traditions; but that is simply
another way of iterating the fact that they _are there to be
changed_. The moral reformer who would improve society
must take into account the fact that there exist among the
adult members of a generation, powerful habits, w