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INTROD.
at the pleasure, and as it were by the creation of the
professor;
v. I. Locke but an obscure anticipation of those fundamental moral truths whereof his metaphysical System smoothed the way to the discovery It was reserved to Helvetius to place them in a full & steady light and perhaps to some one yet to come to put it hors d'attiente by separating the of that great man from at once questionable and unpopular revoltants by introducing a little more method into the plan, and by multiplying extending the number & particularity of [examples] amplifications to [put it out of the reach satisfy the .... of all objectors] to dissipate every remaining cloud that remains offers itself to the observation exposed to the .... of objectors to reconcile it with opposing prejudices
If we ask2 then1, whether the science be susceptible capable of
certainty, the answer is plain, the same that those
facts in each case are susceptible in of, and none other.
I [would] scorn blush <add>tremble</add> to take an undue credit
to my system by omitting to point out any weakness
in it I can discover.
[Desirous of nothing more than that my system
should not prevail if it be not true, nor if it be any
farther than it is so true. I would seem &c at ]
It is founded upon sensation — that is certain —
& it sensation is the highest evidence — that is also
certain
but this sensation is not of him who announces the
proposition concerning it [whether of affirmance or
denial] it is not of the Professor, nor can it be
(but by accident) of the audience: it is in him
and in them no more than a presumption of
what would be the sensations if other men, in a case which is not present formed
upon recollection observation & analogy — recollection
of past experiences one's own sensations upon past occasions — observation
of the conduct of other's men — analogy according to
which such conduct or discourse is presumed to originate from
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the like sensations as those which give birth to the same conduct in ourselves.
it is not so with they must be caught as they arise.
It is true again on the other hand that this recollection
of experience this observation & this analogy are the very grounds which
and the only one we have) of conduct which are universally
received as sufficient for the most
as well as least important concerns of common life. I should hold myself accountable for all the mischief it produc'd to suffer my system to gain the chance an undue credit by the non-op not diss enabling of of any weakness I can see discover
These observations This expe recollection of experience may be erroneous —
it may be incomplete, tho' just: the analogy
binding together the experiences and observations, according to by which the sensations of others are presumed
to be what we think we remember
our own to have been in situations cases similar,
tho true just in kind as to this kind of those sensations may be erroneous as to their
degree
Thus much does it want & thus much it is presumed & much more must every other want Thus much does it want of the evidence of intuition. This is it's weakness but it is for those who maintain a different one to shew that it is a weakness from whom their own is free is a case which is not present
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Helvetius )( Beccaria
Helvetius established the principle of utility as the universal
list the merit of of all actions as well them which are whether the object of law or as any others:
Becarria first set it out [the maxim formed upon this principle]
at the head of a work of jurisprudence.
It is clear therefore then when Locke proposed
to himself the question whether moral truths viz, truths concerning the merit of moral actions
of the number of of which what are called political are only a part) are strictly susceptible
of demonstration, and answer'd it in the affirmative,
he had no clear notion of the principle
of utility as the standard of the merit of those
actions.
NOTE
The maxim he has alledged as an example, viz:
that "where there is no property, there is no injustice",
is at bottom nothing more than a proposition concerning
the import of the words employ'd in it [resolvable
into an identical one] what it declares is,
that the term injustice is not in the his opinion
of the speaker to be applied predicated to any act by which
no property is violated: but how to know what
is injustice in itself, and how it comes to have an
evil influence upon the ballance of happiness are questions
the solution of which it contributes but little to advance.
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Moral Sense — different
Fallacy in attributing the word Sense to the
pretended Moral Sense: this sense is not that
of those persons who are affected by the act:
That sense is rather a taste; i:e: an instructive and lucky
judgment than a sense [than an element of which
happiness and misery are composed] and as
[different] much distinguishable from these sensations, whether of mind or body the
Elements of which happiness and misery are
composed, as the aversion felt at seeing a bad
action done in common life or represented upon
a theatre is from the unhappiness the sensation
of pain felt by the persons who are the objects of
it.
Demonstration is performed a perpetual by judgments of the
agreement or disagreement of ideas, wherein the
mind is not passive but active
INTROD. Utility rests on Fact — Expectation a fact. How far certain [BR][II][ ] Locke "Moral Sense" not a Sense.
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