Several independent powers

Text by professor Timo Airaksinen

Berkeley rejects such a backstop. This is to say, to claim to have such a patent escape road, unconditional right to self-defence, is a mistake. We can never escape the frightening call of duty, not even when our life is at stake. If we disobeyed and the penalty is death, we must accept our fate – of course, Berkeley is in favour of capital punishment (PO 32). The obvious exception is the utopian possibility of all the people being virtuous and doing their duty all the time, as Berkeley imagines. He thinks the system of duties is such a coherent whole that it indeed is possible to imagine a perfect world where all the people do their duty and obey the law all the time. He does not develop this idea, but he explicitly mentions it. In such a possible world, people need not be afraid of each other. (PO 7, 15). This idea also applies to "several independent powers" that are unified "under the direction […] of one and the same will, I mean the Law of the Society." (PO 16). Here Berkeley sounds like Rousseau. Hobbes never mentions such a harmony or a positive moral utopia, that is, the good place for the good people.

PO 48 mentions a royal court where adultery is the only way to get an heir to the throne; but, says Berkeley, it is still sinful adultery. The act is unjustifiable. In the same way, to kill one in order to save many is a good deed but also a murder; it is murder because I kill an innocent person; hence, it is wrong. This follows logically from his key premise that consequences do not matter. Prudential considerations play no role when we ask what murder and adultery are and if they ever are justified. However many people you save, to kill an innocent person is murder. Berkeley himself does not mention this source of moral conflict based on the physical laws of nature, although he repeatedly tells his readers about the possibility of suffering because of natural accidents. (PO 13-4, 41). Again, he does not discuss any examples. Another case: when we say, "be loyal to a bad prince" we see how the perfect moral utopia becomes impossible in the sense that all the citizens may do the right thing all the time and still suffer badly.