John Locke's argument, from 1689, for Divine Morality -- it's strengths and weaknesses
Jeffrey Kaplan Jeffrey Kaplan
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 Published On Feb 20, 2020

This is a lecture concerning John Locke's Two Treatises of Government​, Book II, Chapter 2, Sections 4 & 6. Therein, Locke presents an argument that we have moral obligations not to kill, hurt, enslave, or steal from others. And the reason that we have those obligations, Locke claims, is that God created all human beings and therefore owns them. If people are the property of God, Locke argues, then it is wrong for us to damage his property. But even if this argument succeeds, even if it is valid and ultimately sound, this argument cannot be used to explain where all objective moral facts or laws come from, because the argument's construction presupposes the existence of just that kind of objective morality. This lecture is part of an introductory level philosophy course, Introduction to Ethics.

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