WRITTEN REPORT

John Locke
• English philosopher whose works lie at the foundation of modern
philosophical empiricism and political liberalism.
• His writings are among the most important texts for epistemology,
metaphysics, politics, religion, and pedagogy.
• He is widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment
thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism".
• His theory of mind is often cited as the origin of modern conceptions of identity
and the self, figuring prominently in the work of later philosophers such as
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, David Hume, and Immanuel Kant

John Locke – Theories

• “Education makes the Man”
o Locke defines the self at birth is a tabula rasa (blank slate)
o He posits that we are born with no innate ideas
o “Filling” this “slate” is determined by experience, derived from
sense perception (sensations) and reflections
→ Empiricism
o Virtues can be learned and practiced
• “Association of ideas” made when young are more significant than those made
when mature, as they are the foundation of the self
• Locke warns parents not to let their children develop “negative associations”.
• Moral precepts are derived from an individual person’s experiences of pain
and pleasure rather than coming from a transcendental authority.
• Politics | Just Government
• No rule is divinely appointed; no wealth is divinely ordained.
• Rulers should only stay in power if they have the support of the people.
• The main role of the Government is to protect the rights of the people.
• Rights of people to rebel and overthrow the Government if
the Government fails to do their roles.
• Separation of Church and State
• Toleration (Religious Tolerance)

Reporter Note:
Negative associations in Locke's terms mean any influence that deters a person to
develop good habits.
Toleration is allowing of any religion or belief for any person in the country.
 John Locke – Just Government
• Rights-based Ethics (Natural Rights theory)
o Natural Rights – certain basic, important, inalienable entitlements that
SHOULD be respected and protected in any action.
o People are born with natural rights, and the Government exists to
protect those natural rights.
o Locke argues that a person entails having rights to:
✓ Life
✓ Liberty
✓ Property acquired from one’s own labour.
❖ His view of Rights and Politics have inspired the Declaration of
Independence by Thomas Jefferson (1776), and the French Revolution (1789).

Reporter Note:
- Declaration of Independence was originally named " The unanimous
Declaration of the thirteen united States of America".
- Rights based Ethics is now derived into the theory of Social Contract.

Summary:
John Locke is an English philosopher who has influenced a great deal of
succeeding philosophers.
He believed that a man is born with a blank slate (tabula rasa). And he believed
that to fill our blank slate, we experience things and sense phenomenon.
Locke also supported Rights-based Ethics in that each person has inalienable
rights (Natural Rights) that must be respected by the Government and that no ruler is
divinely ordained. He/she and his/her Government will be replaced if it has been found
that the Government does not respect the rights of the people.

Moral Sense Theory

• Also known as Moral Sentimentalism
• Typically holds that distinctions between morality and immorality are
discovered by emotional responses to experience (Morality based on feelings).
o E.g. Feeling shame after an action informs the person that
what they was immoral.
• Often relies on analogies with the aesthetic sense.
• Guides an individual on their appreciation of virtue and revulsion of vice.
MST – Lord Shaftesbury
rd
Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3 Earl of
Shaftesbury (Feb. 26, 1671 – Feb. 16, 1713)
• English politician, philosopher, and writer.
• One of the first persons to formulate what would be called Moral Sense Theory
and use the term moral sense.
• Moral judgment as self-reflection
• Moral sense
• Shaftesbury characterizes this as a tendency to admire and approve what
is beautiful in people's motives and characters
• Similar to feeling of attraction or repulsion to beauty or ugliness
respectively, is the feeling of attracting or repulsion to kind or
hostile treatment from early childhood.
• The reason for our deliberate choice of right or wrong course of action.

MST – Joseph Butler

Joseph Butler
(May 18, 1692 – June 16, 1752)
• English Anglican bishop, theologian, apologist, and philosopher.
• Known for his critiques of Deism, egoism, and John Locke’s theory of
personal identity.
• His philosophy is largely defensive, overall.
• Moral sense
• The human mind is an organized hierarchy of a number of different
impulses and principles, many of which are not fundamentally
selfish.
• People’s moral lives are motivated by three principles:
• Principle of Benevolence
• Principle of Self-love
• Principle of Reflection

• Principle of Benevolence
• Rational concern for the welfare of others
• Principle of Self-love
• Enables us to evaluate the desirability of specific actions within
the context of our long‐range happiness.
• Core of Butler’s rejection of psychological Egoism
• Principle of Reflection / Conscience
• The power to deliberate rationally over conflicting motives,
called conscience.
• When a person morally acts, he or she acts with a moral sense
of right and wrong.
Summary:
Moral Sense Theory is a moral theory that relies on feelings to determine right
from wrong. Also known as Moral Sentimentalism, it relies on personal experiences that
generate emotional responses to determine the morality of an action.
Anthony Ashley-Cooper (Lord Shaftesbury) was one of the first persons to use
the term "moral sense" and formulate what is now Moral Sense Theory. He
characterizes our moral sense similar to how we are attracted to beauty and repelled to
ugliness.
Joseph Butler on the other hand relates our moral sense to concern for others
(Benevolence), to Self-love, and to our power to deliberate rationally over conflicting
motives (Conscience).

Ethics in Politics
Political Ethics
(public morality or public ethics)
➔ The practice of making moral judgments into political action, and
also the study of that practice.
• Divided into two branches:
o Ethics of process
o deals with public officials and their methods.
o Ethics of policy
o concerns with judgments about policies and laws.

Ethics in Politics – Ethics of Process

• Niccolò Machiavelli, unlike Aristotle, believed that a political leader may
be required to behave in evil ways if necessary to maintain his authority.
• Michael Walzer - The problem of Dirty Hands
– For the sake of those for whom officials act, the duties of office may permit
and even require officials to use force, lie, keep secrets, and break
promises in ways that would be wrong in private life
– Creates a paradox: “To do wrong to do right.”
• Problem of Many Hands
– Occurs if there is a gap in a responsibility distribution in a collective setting
that is morally problematic
– Difficult to pinpoint “who is morally responsible for what?”
• Conflict of Interest
– Individuals inherently possess many different interests and loyalties. At
any given time these interests may compete.
 – In simplest terms, Conflict of Interest occurs when the official has the
ability to reap a monetary reward or any other reward from a decision
made in his or her public capacity.
– When a conflict of interest is possible, an officeholder is expected to
abstain from the discussion and the vote.

Ethics in Politics – Ethics of Policy

• Political ethics further asks what conclusion should be adopted as policy
and coercively enforced as law when
– Citizens reasonably disagree about the values at stake
– When they belong to different communities and nations
• The key problems in policy ethics are not conflicts between ends and means, or
between the process and outcomes, but rather between the values of the ends
or outcomes themselves.
• The problems are shown for the following (but not limited to these) examples:
– Retributive vs. Consequentialist (Criminal Punishment)
– Egalitarianism vs. Libertarianism (Healthcare, Welfare, Education,
Taxation)
– Non-Discrimination vs. Equality of Opportunity (Racial or Gender
Affirmation)
– Freedom of Speech
– Religion and Government Support
– Scientific Endeavors (Gene-Editing, Nanotechnology, Reproductive
Technologies)

Reporter Note:
"The End Justifies the Means", for policy ethics. Value of the outcome justifies
the methods used.

Summary:
Political Ethics is an ethical approach to any political move.
It is divided into two types: the Ethics of Process, and Ethics of Policy.
Leaders and politicians may be forced to use immoral methods in order to solve
problems and maintain authority, that the end or outcome might justify the process that
made it happen.
There are many sectors in society that such valued-outcome-against-unethical-
process is observed, like in Criminal Punishment, Welfare, Education, Freedom of
Speech, Scientific Endeavors, etc.
References:
❖ Korab-Karpowicz, W. Julian (2010). A History of Political Philosophy: From
Thucydides to Locke. New York: Global Scholarly Publications. p. 291.
❖ Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. pp. 527–29. ISBN 978-0-13-158591-1.
❖ Locke, John (1997b), Woolhouse, Roger (ed.), An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, New York: Penguin Books
❖ The American International Encyclopedia, vol. 9, New York: JJ Little Co, 1954.
❖ https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Locke
❖ https://iep.utm.edu/locke-et
❖ https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-
and-press-releases/moral-sense
❖ https://www.britannica.com/topic/moral-sense
❖ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/moral-sentimentalism/
❖ https://www.britannica.com/topic/ethics-philosophy/Machiavelli
❖ Shaftesbury, Anthony Ashley Cooper, Third Earl of. Characteristics of Men,
Manners, Opinions, Times. London, 1711. Reprint, edited by Lawrence E.
Klein. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
❖ http://www.iep.utm.edu/butler/
❖ Stephen L. Darwall, "Introduction" to Joseph Butler, Five Sermons.
Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983.
❖ https://www.libertarianism.org/columns/self-interest-social-order-classical-
liberalism-joseph-butler
❖ https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/butler-moral
❖ https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/dft/files/political_ethics-revised_10-11.pdf
❖ Strauss, Leo (2014-07-04). Thoughts on Machiavelli. University of
Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226230979.
❖ Thompson, Dennis F. (2005). "The Problem of Many Hands". Restoring
Responsibility: Ethics in Government, Business and Healthcare. Cambridge
University Press. pp. 11–32. ISBN 9780521547222
❖ https://www.scu.edu/government-ethics/resources/what-is-
government-ethics/conflicts-of-interest-in-government/
❖ Beitz, Charles. "Review Article: International Liberalism and Distributive
Justice: A Survey of Recent Thought," World Politics 51 (1999), pp. 269-296.