John Locke and David Hume: Texts on Tolerance and Morality
Texts of Locke
Author: The letters that comprise *On Tolerance* were published by John Locke between 1689 and 1690. These letters provide the essential ideological basis for the political theory put forward around the same time in his *Two Treatises of Government*. During these years, two decisive events occurred in England: the Glorious Revolution of 1688, reflecting the success of parliamentarism and the limitation of the monarch’s power; and the British Bill of Rights of 1689, which largely reflects the ideas of political liberalism, of which Locke is considered the founder.
Theme
The theme of the text is tolerance between different religious views, which should be guaranteed by a state separate from the Church. This separation aims to curb the most common cause of wars: the desire to impose one’s opinion on others. It is a defense of religious liberty and the separation of church and state, although Locke limits this freedom to various Protestant groups.
Main Ideas
- The intolerance of different views of orthodoxy is the cause of all conflicts and wars of religion.
- The earthly ambition for power and distortion of the Gospel message has led the heads of the Church to trigger wars within Christianity.
- By acting so, the leaders of the church inextricably confused two different things: the Church and the State.
Explanation of Ideas
These ideas are fundamental to political liberalism. Locke, a devout Christian, believed that Christianity should discard its distrust of discrepancy because diversity can assert its strength through tolerance. In line with Ockham’s nominalist empiricism, Locke, the father of political liberalism, based his defense of the separation of church and state on the idea that faith and reason have nothing in common. Locke’s nuance is to defend individual rights, including the right to believe in the Christian God without danger. For the liberal, there should be a sacred area of rights that no supraindividual institution can interfere with without cause. Against any attempt at standardization by the State, the individual and their ideas are real, while the State, the Church, or any mixture, are merely institutions serving the peace and the rights of its members.
Hume Text
Author: David Hume’s life unfolded during the 18th century (1711-1776), the “Age of Enlightenment.” England at this time experienced a peculiar socio-political situation following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. While absolutism prevailed on the continent, England established the first constitutional monarchy, recognizing individual rights, involving people in the law, abolishing state monopolies, etc. The class that benefited most was the bourgeoisie (commercial, landed, and industrial), to which Hume and the Anglican Church belonged. England also became the first commercial and capitalist power, and its political system, based on parliament and the doctrine of “social contract” rather than the divine right of kings, was the model to imitate.
Theme
The theme of the text is the existence of a universal principle in our moral judgments, which would recognize the evil of those acts that harm society. Hume argues that anyone can recognize injustice if they can move beyond their private convenience and adopt a collective point of view.
Explanation of Ideas
Moral language can differentiate what is best for each individual from what is fair for everyone. Each of us, Hume says, feels good if we see that our peers are doing well, and vice versa. This is benevolence or empathy, the main virtue of Hume’s ethics. This approach is called emotivist ethics, for which the engine of moral actions and their judgments is not reason but emotions. Therefore, when we issue a moral condemnation, we are not talking about any reality in itself, but about our own feelings when contemplating the failed act. We should avoid the naturalistic fallacy, which would attribute to reality itself (the facts) our own emotions, and be aware of the emotional nature of morality.
In morality, reason is a mere slave of the passions, and serves to explain and communicate. We appreciate what benefits those who belong to our species, and we feel bad when they are hurt.