John Locke

“ The measure that men commonly apply to determine what they call virtue and vice. That this is the common measure of virtue and vice, will appear to any one who considers, that, though that passes for vice in one country which is counted a virtue, or at least not vice, in another, yet everywhere virtue and praise, vice and blame, go together. Virtue is everywhere, that which is thought praiseworthy ”

“ Fourthly, There is another sort of relation, which is the conformity or disagreement men’s voluntary actions have to a rule to which they are referred, and by which they are judged of ; which, I think, may be called moral relation, as being that which denominates our moral actions, and deserves well to be examined ; there being no part of knowledge wherein we should be more careful to get determined ideas, and avoid, as much as may be, obscurity and confusion. ”

“ Virtue and vice are names pretended and supposed everywhere to stand for actions in their own nature right and wrong : and as far as they really are so applied, they so far are coincident with the divine law above mentioned. But yet, whatever is pretended, this is visible, that these names, virtue and vice, in the particular instances of their application, through the several nations and societies of men in the world, are constantly attributed only to such actions as in each country and society are in reputation or discredit. ”

“ All relations terminate in simple ideas. First, That it is evident, that all relation terminates in, and is ultimately founded on, those simple ideas we have got from sensation or reflection : so that all we have in our thoughts ourselves, (if we think of anything, or have any meaning) , or would signify to others, when we use words standing for relations, is nothing but some simple ideas, or collections of simple ideas, compared one with another. ”

“ For, though men uniting into politic societies, have resigned up to the public the disposing of all their force, so that they cannot employ it against any fellow-citizens any further than the law of the country directs : yet they retain still the power of thinking well or ill, approving or disapproving of the actions of those whom they live amongst, and converse with : and by this approbation and dislike they establish amongst themselves what they will call virtue and vice. ”

“ For, since it would be utterly in vain to suppose a rule set to the free actions of men, without annexing to it some enforcement of good and evil to determine his will, we must, wherever we suppose a law, suppose also some reward or punishment annexed to that law. ”

“ Secondly, our actions are considered as good, bad, or indifferent ; and in this respect they are relative, it being their conformity to, or disagreement with some rule that makes them to be regular or irregular, good or bad ; and so, as far as they are compared with a rule, and thereupon denominated, they come under relation. Thus the challenging and fighting with a man, as it is a certain positive mode, or particular sort of action, by particular ideas, distinguished from all others, is called duelling : which, when considered in relation to the law of God, will deserve the name of sin ”

“ The denominations of actions often mislead us. But because very frequently the positive idea of the action, and its moral relation, are comprehended together under one name, and the game word made use of to express both the mode or action, and its moral rectitude or obliquity : therefore the relation itself is less taken notice of ; and there is often no distinction made between the positive idea of the action, and the reference it has to a rule. ”

“ Nor is there one of ten thousand, who is stiff and insensible enough, to bear up under the constant dislike and condemnation of his own club. He must be of a strange and unusual constitution, who can content himself to live in constant disgrace and disrepute with his own particular society. Solitude many men have sought, and been reconciled to : but nobody that has the least thought or sense of a man about him, can live in society under the constant dislike and ill opinion of his familiars, and those he converses with. ”

“ Nor is it to be thought strange, that men everywhere should give the name of virtue to those actions, which amongst them are judged praiseworthy ; and call that vice, which they account blamable : since otherwise they would condemn themselves, if they should think anything right, to which they allowed not commendation, anything wrong, which they let pass without blame. ”

“ We have ordinarily as clear a notion of the relation, as of the simple ideas in things on which it is founded. Secondly, That in relations, we have for the most part, if not always, as clear a notion of the relation as we have of those simple ideas wherein it is founded : agreement or disagreement, whereon relation depends, being things whereof we have commonly as clear ideas as of any other whatsoever ; it being but the distinguishing simple ideas, or their degrees one from another, without which we could have no distinct knowledge at all. ”

“ Nay, even those men whose practice was otherwise, failed not to give their approbation right, few being depraved to that degree as not to condemn, at least in others, the faults they themselves were guilty of ; whereby, even in the corruption of manners, the true boundaries of the law of nature, which ought to be the rule of virtue and vice, were pretty well preferred. ”

“ It would be in vain for one intelligent being to set a rule to the actions of another, if he had it not in his power to reward the compliance with, and punish deviation from his rule, by some good and evil, that is not the natural product and consequence of the action itself For that, being a natural convenience or inconvenience, would operate of itself, without a law. ”

“ For, since nothing can be more natural than to encourage with esteem and reputation that wherein every one finds his advantage, and to blame and discountenance the contrary ; it is no wonder that esteem and discredit, virtue and vice, should, in a great measure, everywhere correspond with the unchangeable rule of right and wrong, which the law of God hath established ”

“ I think I may say, that he who imagines commendation and disgrace not to be strong motives to men to accommodate themselves to the opinions and rules of those with whom they converse, seems little skilled in the nature or history of mankind : the greatest part whereof we shall find to govern themselves chiefly, if not solely, by this law of fashion ”

“ This is a burden too heavy for human sufferance : and he must be made up of irreconcilable contradictions, who can take pleasure in company, and yet be insensible of contempt and disgrace from his companions. ”

“ Secondly, from sensation we have the collection of those simple sensible ideas which are to be found in a man, and of some action, whereby we put an end to perception and motion in the man ; all which simple ideas are comprehended in the word murder. ”

“ Of these moral rules or laws, to which men generally refer, and by which they judge of the rectitude or pravity of their actions, there seem to me to be three sorts, with their three different enforcements, or rewards and punishments. ”

“ And therefore men, without renouncing all sense and reason, and their own interest, which they are so constantly true to, could not generally mistake, in placing their commendation and blame on that side that really deserved it not. ”

“ For, if I have a clear idea of sweetness, light, or extension, I have, too, of equal, or more, or less, of each of these : if I know what it is for one man to be born of a woman, viz. Sempronia, I know what it is for another man to be born of the same woman Sempronia ; and so have as clear a notion of brothers as of births, and perhaps clearer. ”

“ It is very convenient that, by distinct names, these relations should be observed and marked out in mankind, there being occasion, both in laws and other communications one with another, to mention and take notice of men under these relations : from whence also arise the obligations of several duties amongst men : whereas, in brutes, men having very little or no cause to mind these relations, they have not thought fit to give them distinct and peculiar names. ”

“ Thus, a general is one that hath power to command an army ; and an army under a general is a collection of armed men, obliged to obey one man. A citizen, or a burgher, is one who has a right to certain privileges in this or that place. ”

“ Human actions, when with their various ends, objects, manners, and circumstances, they are framed into distinct complex ideas, are, as has been shown so many mixed modes, a great part whereof have names annexed to them. ”

“ In this case, when the positive mode has one name, and another name as it stands in relation to the law, the distinction may as easily be observed as it is in substances, where one name, v.g. man, is used to signify the thing ”

“ So the word friend, being taken for a man who loves and is ready to do good to another, has all these following ideas to the making of it up : first, all the simple ideas, comprehended in the word man, or intelligent being ; secondly, the idea of love ”

“ Where they had no philosophical notions, there they had no terms to express them : and it is no wonder men should have framed no names for those things they found no occasion to discourse of. From whence it is easy to imagine why, as in some countries, they may have not so much as the name for a horse ”

“ This, by the way, may give us some light into the different state and growth of languages ; which being suited only to the convenience of communication, are proportioned to the notions men have, and the commerce of thoughts familiar amongst them ”