Transcript JOHN LOCKE

Locke (1632-1704): “A
Letter Concerning
Toleration”
JOHN LOCKE
LETTER ON TOLERATION
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Raffaella Mannori CLIL 2015 JOHN LOCKE
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• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1OZdoDqFIw
• QUESTIONS:
1) What is the only business of the CHURCH?
2) When did he write the letter and where was he?
3) How could this letter be better understood?
4) What is Locke’s final conclusion?
5) What should the STATE do to guarantee the citizens’
consent?
6) Could these principles of tolerance be extended to
everyone in Locke’s opinion?
YOU TUBE VIDEO CLIP
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QUOTATION
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QUOTATION
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“Toleration"
• Prohibiting legal discrimination against those of
another (usually minority and religious) belief.
•
Requiring equal treatment (usually of religious
dissenters) under the law.
• Prohibiting the use of force against religious
dissenters to either limit their civil liberties or to
change their beliefs.
DEFINITION of TOLERATION
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• 1) When combined, religion and politics are essentially a means of
causing “war”: a battle for domination/control/power through
ideology; also, religious leaders often use belief to ferment war.
• 2) The priesthood had perverted Christianity with two false beliefs:
 Variation of worship is a sin
 Christians have a duty to correct deviation and impose
uniformity through force.
Locke believed true Christians could only use love and persuasion to change
another’s beliefs. This was a very radical idea in its time.
Toleration: Locke’s Premises
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3) Force cannot induce religious change; it simply cannot be
accomplished because belief is, by nature, individual and subjective in
nature.
•
-- Martyrs everywhere and for all time would die before changing
their beliefs
•
-- Attempts at forced change only creates hypocrites or violence
(which are essentially sinful)
• -- Spiritual epistemology cannot be empirically proven; there is no
objective criteria for determining which set of beliefs is “better” or
more valid
•
(NOTE: Relationship to tabula rasa “Essay Concerning Human
Understanding”)
• -- A National Church of any creed is the worst form of these truths; it
creates the most violence, social discord and hypocrisy.
Toleration: Locke’s Premises
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Raffaella Mannori CLIL 2015 JOHN LOCKE
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• Notably, despite Locke's then (and even now) radical defence of toleration,
he excludes both atheists and Catholics, even though he explicitly protects
Pagans, Muslims and Jews. Why?
• a) he believes that atheists are incapable of morality or, specifically,
swearing oaths (such as swearing in, on a Bible, to a court case). Without a
belief in an afterlife, he argues, one cannot fear the ultimate consequence of
immoral actions.
• b) Catholics are excluded because Rome was then as much a political body
(a state) as a religious institution: the Pope was legally an emperor and
Rome had a standing army, which then waged actual war against other
states and so on; thus, Locke concludes, a person could not hold allegiance
to two separate states.
Exceptions
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• Toleration through separation of church and state.
1) Toleration:
Removes the cause of hostility: it is one thing to argue about belief, but
actual hostility occurs when one group forces another group to abide by
its religious beliefs.
 Breeds trust among dissenting believers: America is living proof of this.
 Causes religious proliferation (many churches rather than one) which
decentralizes power and makes it impossible for a single religious to
control the state
 Most Catholics excluded because they vow allegiance to the Pope, not
their own state.
Conclusions: Locke's solutions
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2) Codified separation of state and church powers:
 The state’s responsibility is entirely and only secular: to protect the public
good (peace and security)
 “the Magistrate has no Power to impose by his Laws, the use of any Rites and
Ceremonies in any Church, so neither he has any Power to forbid the use of such
Rites....” (41)
 The church’s responsibility is entirely and only spiritual: to protect its
members’ salvation
 Thus, the state can only involve itself in those religious matters threatening
the public good.
Conclusions: Locke's
solutions
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According to Locke, a church is
• « a voluntary society of men joining themselves
together of their own accord, in order to the public
worshipping of God, in such a manner as they judge
acceptable to him, and effectual to the salvation of
their soul ».
• Thus, a church can be only a voluntary association of
people who make the free choice of being there and who can
leave the group if it seems to be no longer appropriated
to their salvation. So the rules which organise the
association can't be imposed onto the whole society
of England. The strongest power that a church has is to
exclude a member from the community, but this member
retains his civil rights, for « belonging to a church can't be
an argument to prejudice another person in his civil
enjoyments ». Civil rights are the same for all the citizens,
whatever their denominations may be.
CHURCHES
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• Locke bases a great deal of his argumentation on religious
considerations: he refers to the Bible in order to show that for
the aim of Christianity, and the role of the church, the
appropriate means are incompatible with terrestrial
interest and the thirst for power. Indeed, the business of
« true religion » is not the « striving for power and empire »
.The only role of church is to guide Christians in their « war
upon (their) own lusts and vices ». For that purpose, the
church's servants have only one mean of action: « the
exemplary holiness of their conversation », not violence and
persecutions. « How easily the pretense of religion, and the
care of soul serves for a cloak to covetousness and
ambition ».
• Toleration, for Locke, is an evident necessity both for Christian
reasons and reasonable reasons.
CHURCHES
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• Civil magistrates caring for men‘s souls is not only an absurdity to the
common sense, for Locke, but also illegitimate (there is no legitimation by
God for this in the Bible) and impossible: civil government has only one
means, the laws, and these laws are not appropriate for inner and
personal belief. Constraint can't persuade.
• The interest of the commonwealth refers only to « life, liberty, health, and
indolence of body; and the possession of outward things, such as money,
lands, houses, furniture, and the like ». So, the State's role in the business
of toleration is to guarantee civil rights and the civil peace: « laws
provide, as much as is possible, that the goods and health of subjects be not
injured by the fraud or the violence of the others ». To force someone by law
to believe in what he doesn't want to believe is not only absurd for Locke but
it's an offence done to God. The other consequence is that « neither pagan,
nor Mahometan, nor Jew, ought to be excluded from the civil rights of the
commonwealth because of his religion (...) the commonwealth which
embraces indifferently all men that are honest, peaceable and industrious ».
• Civil power can't interrupt a religious ceremony except if, in that ceremony,
things forbidden in civil life (human sacrifices, for instance) are done,
placing in danger the security and safety of Nation and people.
STATE –CIVIL GOVERNMENT
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• A civil power which shows itself incapable of doing this job can be
overthrown by the people: in that way, liberty of conscience is finally the
more important thing.
• So the laws of toleration must guarantee civil peace and the State is a
sort of regulator.
• According to Locke, wars and troubles are not caused by the diversity of
opinions (religious, but also political) but by:
• the refusal of toleration to those who are of different opinions
• the insatiable desire for domination and the credulity of the multitude.
• And it is this unstable climate which goes against civil peace and all liberties
(and against economic prosperity finally).
• « If the law of toleration were once so settled, that all churches were obliged
to lay down toleration as a foundation of their own liberty; and teach that
liberty of conscience is every man's natural right »
STATE –CIVIL GOVERNMENT
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1. What are the three effects of toleration according to Locke?
2. What are the two false beliefs with which the priesthood had
corrupted Christianity?
3. What is Locke’s definition of « belief»?
4. Why cannot force be used to impose a religious change of beliefs?
5. Is it possible according to Locke determine which set of belief is
better?
6. What is Locke’s solution to stop bloody religious wars ?
7. Why are Catholics and Atheists excluded from toleration in Locke’s
opinion?
QUESTIONS
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8.
How does Locke define a church? What is the main feature of a
church?
9.
What is the State’s role in relation to toleration?
10. In which cases can a civil government interfere with a religious
ceremony?
QUESTIONS
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