It would make an interesting statistic: how often the existence of commandments is the cause of their being broken. How many offenses are consequences of their penalties. It would be interesting to find out whether more children are defiled because of the age of consent or in spite of it.1
Thus far, this is my favorite piece by Karl Kraus. I think it is precisely a scientific study of the results of our moral prejudices that would most benefit humanity. Sadly, performing the study is easy relative to the difficulty of acquiring the will to perform such a study and to make morality subservient to science.
- Karl Kraus : Dicta And Contradicta : Morality, Christianity 222↩