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8 - Locke's moral philosophy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2006

By
J. B. Schneewind
Edited by
Vere Chappell
Vere Chappell
Affiliation:
University of Massachusetts, Amherst
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Summary

Locke's failures are sometimes as significant as his successes. His views on morality are a case in point. He published little on the subject, and what little he did publish raised more problems for his readers than it solved. Some of the difficulties contemporaries perceived in Locke's ethics are indicated in a retort by a critic, who was piqued by Locke's suggestion that the critic was part of a plot against him:

'As to the Storm you speak of, preparing against you, I know nothing of it . . .; yet I can blame none that desire such Principles of Humane Understanding as may give them Proofs and Security against such a System as this, Cogitant Matter, a Mortal Soul, a Manichean God (or a God without Moral Attributes,) and an Arbitrary Law of Good and Evil. . . . The ready way to prevent any such Storm, is to give such a plain Explication of your Principles, without Art or Chicane, as may cure and remove any Fears of this Nature.' (Burnet 1697: 11)

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Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Locke , pp. 199 - 225
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1994

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