Locke, Goodness, and Happiness
This is good, according to Locke.
Pleasure
The law of nature, divine law, and this law are the same thing to Locke.
Moral law
The law of nature comes from what being?
God
This kind of imperative has the general structure of “if you want x, do y”
Hypothetical
This is the first conception of morality.
An action must be done from duty in order to have moral worth.
This is why Locke thinks that inquiring into the “summum bonum” (i.e., the highest good) is pointless.
Because the highest good, or happiness, rests on the “purpose” of humans in Aristotle’s/Aquinas’s conceptions of the word.
This is a description of the state of nature.
Isolated individuals, “individualism,” a state of perfect freedom
This is how humans come to know the law of nature.
Reason
This kind of imperative has the general structure of “if you want x, do y,” where x is not happiness
Problematic
This is the prudent shopkeeper example.
Don’t cheat your customers (so they will keep coming to your business) → no moral worth → not from duty (but in accord with it)
This is why the function or telos of a person is irrelevant to a good or happy life.
Because teleology is based on old science, which accepted the doctrine of natural place (with the four elements in hierarchy). With the scientific revolution, that notion was rejected, which led to the rejection of teleology as a whole.
This is the code of limits on perfect freedom in the state of nature.
Law of nature
This is why one ought to obey the law of nature.
Because it is given by God and knowable to all people
This kind of imperative has the general structure of “if you want x, do y,” where x is happiness
Assertoric
These are the two sides of the friend of mankind example
Be charitably helpful (relevant moral duty) → moral worth if from duty, but not if solely in accordance with duty.
This is moral good.
Pleasure, or that which causes pleasure.
This is the content of the law of nature
(1) preserve yourself, (2)do not harm others in life, health, liberty, or property
This is how we come to own property.
We mix our labor (which we own (self-evidently)) into an object
This kind of imperative has the general structure of “do y”
Categorical
This is the second conception of morality.
An action done from duty has its worth NOT in the purpose to be attained by it, but in the maxim according to which it is determined
This is moral evil.
Pain, or what causes pain.
The side of the Euthyphro debate that Locke falls on creates the theory of voluntarism or the divine command theory. What is the content of this theory?
You must obey God because God made you and is superior to you
This is why it is wrong to murder, according to Locke.
Because we are God’s property, and to do so would be to take away God’s property.
This is why the categorical imperative is the moral imperative.
(1) Command not for the sake of inclination, but for its own sake, (2) worth/value lies in the action itself, not its result, (3) it can’t be opted out of
This is the third conception of morality.
To have a duty is to be required to act in a certain way out of respect for (moral) law