ThatthisexplanationistrueforsomemindsinsomemoodsIwouldnotdeny。StillIthinkthatwhenamanseriouslyasks`whyheshoulddo’anything，hecommonlyassumesinhimselfadeterminationtopursuewhateverconductmaybeshownbyargumenttobereasonable，eventhoughitbeverydifferentfromthattowhichhisnon-rationalinclinationsmayprompt。Andwearegenerallyagreedthatreasonableconductinanycasehastobedeterminedonprinciples，inapplyingwhichtheagent’sinclination——asitexistsapartfromsuchdetermination——isonlyoneelementamongseveralthathavetobeconsidered，andcommonlynotthemostimportantelement。Butwhenweaskwhattheseprinciplesare，thediversityofanswerswhichwefindmanifestlydeclaredinthesystemsandfundamentalformulaeofprofessedmoralistsseemstobereallypresentinthecommonpracticalreasoningofmengenerally；withthisdifference，thatwhereasthephilosopherseeksunityofprinciple，andconsistencyofmethodattheriskofparadox，theunphilosophicmanisapttoholddifferentprinciplesatonce，andtoapplydifferentmethodsinmoreorlessconfusedcombination。Ifthisbeso，wecanofferanotherexplanationofthepersistentunsatisfieddemandforanultimatereason，abovenoticed。
Foriftherearedifferentviewsoftheultimatereasonablenessofconduct，implicitinthethoughtofordinarymen，thoughnotbroughtintoclearrelationtoeachother，-itiseasytoseethatanysingleanswertothequestion’why’willnotbecompletelysatisfactory，asitwillbegivenonlyfromoneofthesepointsofview，andwillalwaysleaveroomtoaskthequestionfromsomeother。
Iammyselfconvincedthatthisisthemainexplanationofthephenomenon:anditisonthisconvictionthattheplanofthepresenttreatiseisbased。Wecannot，ofcourse，regardasvalidreasoningsthatleadtoconflictingconclusions；andIthereforeassumeasafundamentalpostulateofEthics，thatsofarastwomethodsconflict，oneorotherofthemmustbemodifiedorrejected。ButIthinkitfundamentallyimportanttorecognise，attheoutsetofEthicalinquiry，thatthereisadiversityofmethodsappliedinordinarypracticalthought。
Whatthenarethesedifferentmethods？whatarethedifferentpracticalprincipleswhichthecommonsenseofmankindisprimafaciepreparedtoacceptasultimate？Somecareisneededinansweringthisquestion:becausewefrequentlyprescribethatthisorthat`ought’tobedoneoraimedatwithoutanyexpressreferencetoanulteriorend，whileyetsuchanendistacitlypresupposed。Itisobviousthatsuchprescriptionsaremerely，whatKantcallsthem，HypotheticalImperatives；theyarenotaddressedtoanyonewhohasnotfirstacceptedtheend。
Forinstance:ateacherofanyartassumesthathispupilwantstoproducetheproductoftheart，ortoproduceitexcellentinquality:betellshimthatbeoughttoholdtheawl，thehammer，thebrushdifferently。Aphysicianassumesthathispatientwantshealth: