Locke

2019 ◽  
pp. 49-59
Author(s):  
Roger Crisp
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
John Locke ◽  
The Self ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Self Interest

This chapter discusses the views on self-interest and morality of the great English empiricist philosopher John Locke (1632–1704). Locke’s responses to Thomas Hobbes’s view that there is a natural law of self-interest are described, in particular his view that there are moral reasons independent of those grounded in the self-interest of the agent. Locke’s own account of natural law is set out, and the role of God as the source of morality explained. The question of whether Locke was a utilitarian is discussed, and an explanation is offered for Locke’s failure explicitly to allow for ultimate moral reasons.

“A Trespass against the Whole Species”: Universal Crime and Sovereign Founding in John Locke’s Second Treatise of Government

2018 ◽  
Vol 46 (4) ◽  
pp. 560-585
Author(s):  
Sinja Graf
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Of Nature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Creation

This essay theorizes how the enforcement of universal norms contributes to the solidification of sovereign rule. It does so by analyzing John Locke’s argument for the founding of the commonwealth as it emerges from his notion of universal crime in the Second Treatise of Government. Previous studies of punishment in the state of nature have not accounted for Locke’s notion of universal crime which pivots on the role of mankind as the subject of natural law. I argue that the dilemmas specific to enforcing the natural law against “trespasses against the whole species” drive the founding of sovereign government. Reconstructing Locke’s argument on private property in light of universal criminality, the essay shows how the introduction of money in the state of nature destabilizes the normative relationship between the self and humanity. Accordingly, the failures of enforcing the natural law require the partitioning of mankind into separate peoples under distinct sovereign governments. This analysis theorizes the creation of sovereign rule as part of the political productivity of Locke’s notion of universal crime and reflects on an explicitly political, rather than normative, theory of “humanity.”

Adams, Wilson, and the American Res Publica

2021 ◽  
pp. 187-220
Author(s):  
Michael C. Hawley
Keyword(s):  
Natural Law ◽  
Final Stage ◽  
John Locke ◽  
The Self ◽  
Original Formulation ◽  
American Founding ◽  
John Adams ◽  
American Experiment ◽  
Res Publica

This chapter considers the final stage of the Ciceronian tradition: the American founding. Insofar as the American founding is influenced by John Locke, it is indirectly indebted to Cicero. However, John Adams and James Wilson recognize the profoundly Ciceronian character of American liberal republicanism. Both argue that the prevailing understandings of natural law, justice, liberty, and what it means to be a republic derive from Cicero’s formulation. Moreover, Adams and Wilson see the American experiment as proving Cicero right, that a republic tethered to natural law could be realized. They also see the American Founding as contributing its own innovation to this tradition: written constitutionalism. The self-conscious writing of a regime’s constitution enables the principles of a natural law republic to be fixed and formalized in a way that Cicero’s original formulation did not provide for.

scholarly journals Objective Conditions Count, Political Beliefs Decide: The Conditional Effects of Self-Interest and Ideology on Redistribution Preferences

2021 ◽  
pp. 003232172199365
Author(s):  
Klaus Armingeon ◽  
David Weisstanner
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
The Self ◽  
Social Survey ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
Conditional Effects ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Difference

How can we explain variation in demand for redistribution among cross-pressured voters? We argue that redistributive preferences reflect an interaction between material self-interest and political ideology. The self-interest argument predicts growing opposition to redistribution as income increases, while the argument of ideologically driven preferences suggests that left-leaning citizens are more supportive of redistribution than right-leaning citizens. Focusing on cross-pressured voters, we expect that the difference in redistribution preferences between left- and right-leaning citizens is smaller at the bottom of the income hierarchy than at the top. Among the group of left-leaning citizens, the role of material self-interest is expected to be smaller than among right-leaning citizens. We provide evidence in line with our argument analysing data from the European Social Survey in 25 European democracies between 2008 and 2018.

Society and slaves

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Harrigan
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
The Self ◽  
Public Order ◽  
Slave Society ◽  
Self Interest

In the early colonies, alternative forms of society could be a source of anxiety. Religious and social cohesion was a concern in what was often an unmastered environment. Accounts of the early colonies reflect on the cohesion of a society made up of settlers and slaves. The self-interest of colonists could be acknowledged as problematic for public order, and the desires of slaves as disruptive to property. In practice, some property was ceded to slaves, and strategies were described to motivate slaves by granting comparative favour. Depictions of the uncultivated environment reflect anxieties about the proximity of unmastered spaces outside the colonies. There were also internal frontiers maintained by shared practices, such as hospitality and the consumption of alcohol. A number of testimonies about the maroon slaves illustrate concerns with culture and subversion, as well as the role of rumour in the early colonies. Further tensions in the colonies developed from desire, and related to questions surrounding marriage, manumission and métissage. Métissage, like manumission, was never considered outside distinct social contexts, and illustrates the instability within the slave society.

Problems of Controlling Public Sector Agencies: The Case of Norwegian Oil Policy

1981 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. Richardson
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Control Systems ◽  
High Technology ◽  
The Self ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Oil Policy ◽  
And Control ◽  
Western Democracies

The problem of the control and accountability of public sector agencies is common in most Western democracies. Though ‘hiving off’ is seen as attractive by policy-makers, it often brings with it quite serious problems. It is important to take account of the role of the self-interest of agencies in designing control systems. This is particularly necessary where failure to control the activity of an agency can have serious consequences in other policy areas or for society as a whole. An examination of Norwegian North Sea oil policy illustrates the difficulty of achieving control in areas involving uncertainty and high technology. The Norwegian case does, however, also illustrate that the ‘natural tendencies' of organizations can be utilized, once recognized, to achieve a greater degree of accountability and control.

scholarly journals Relationship between the Self-Interest Threat and ethical sensitivity, the role of mediating of moral intensity

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (11) ◽  
pp. 41-66
Author(s):  
Asghar asadiyan owghani ◽  
Zohreh Hajiha ◽  
Ramzan Ali royaee ◽  
Hamidreza Vakilifard ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Moral Intensity ◽  
The Self ◽  
Ethical Sensitivity ◽  
Self Interest

Catharine Trotter Cockburn (1679?–1749)

2020 ◽  
pp. 116-266
Keyword(s):  
Moral Obligation ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Moral Philosopher ◽  
Ethical Position ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Will ◽  
Scottish Descent ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
Selection Of

This chapter contains selected letters from the correspondence of Catharine Trotter Cockburn, an English moral philosopher of Scottish descent. It includes a large selection of Cockburn’s letters to and from her niece Ann Hepburn Arbuthnot, spanning the period from 1731 to 1748, as well as letters from Cockburn’s exchanges with the philosophers John Locke and Edmund Law. The topics of the letters concern ethical and moral-theological issues such as the metaphysical foundations of moral obligation and the role of reason in discerning the will of God. The chapter begins with an introductory essay by the editor, arguing that the letters provide insight into how Cockburn developed her mature ethical position in relation to her philosophical contemporaries, especially the freethinkers, deists, mystics, and advocates of self-interest in her time. The text includes editorial annotations to assist the reader’s understanding of early modern words and ideas.

Hutcheson

2019 ◽  
pp. 110-127
Author(s):  
Roger Crisp
Keyword(s):  
Practical Reason ◽  
Moral Sense ◽  
Moral Reasons ◽  
Francis Hutcheson ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Philosophical Ethics ◽  
History Of

This chapter discusses the views on self-interest and morality of the philosopher Francis Hutcheson (1694–1746). After a brief discussion of Hutcheson’s place in the history of philosophical ethics, the role of the afterlife in Hutcheson’s defence of virtue is suggested to be secondary to his assumption of self-standing moral reasons. The complexities of Hutcheson’s broadly consequentialist ethics are clarified. His view of the moral sense, and its relation to benevolent affections, is explained. There follows some discussion of Hutcheson’s pluralist view of practical reason, and his position on the pleasures of virtue.

Revisiting the self-interest versus values debate: The role of temporal perspective

2010 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1155-1158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Corrie V. Hunt ◽  
Anita Kim ◽  
Eugene Borgida ◽  
Shelly Chaiken
Keyword(s):  
The Self ◽  
Temporal Perspective ◽  
Self Interest

SOCIAL PREFERENCES OF YOUNG ADULTS IN JAPAN: THE ROLES OF AGE AND GENDER

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
AKIHIRO KAWASE
Keyword(s):  
Social Welfare ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Economic Behavior ◽  
The Self ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
The Social ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Empirical Methodology

Deviations from self-interest in economic behavior have recently been featured in models of “social preferences.” This study examines the social preferences of Japanese university students using Charness and Rabin’s [( 2002 ). Understanding social preferences with simple tests. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 117, 817–869] experimental design and Martinsson et al.’s [( 2011 ). Social preferences during childhood and the role of gender and age: An experiment in Austria and Sweden. Economics Letters, 110, 248–251] empirical methodology. The obtained distributions of preference types are as follows: self-interest — 14%, competitive — 23%, difference aversion — 73% and social-welfare — 22%. I find a significant age effect for the self-interest preference alone, and a gender difference for the self-interest, difference aversion and social-welfare preferences.

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