display all the ideas for this combination of texts
3 ideas
4019 | Things are good and evil only in reference to pleasure and pain [Locke] |
Full Idea: Things then are good and evil only in reference to pleasure and pain. | |
From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.20.02) | |
A reaction: This is presumably the seeds of utilitarianism, and is evidently at the core of empiricism. In "Gorgias" Socrates explained why it is wrong. |
12515 | Actions are virtuous if they are judged praiseworthy [Locke] |
Full Idea: It is not thought strange that men everywhere should give the name of virtue to those actions which amongst them are judged praiseworthy. | |
From: John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.28.10) | |
A reaction: Wrong. Being very successful in sport is considered praiseworthy, but not virtuous. We praise actions because they are virtuous, so the virtue cannot be constituted merely by the praise. |
2672 | Virtues must be very detached, to avoid being motivated by pleasure [Cicero] |
Full Idea: None of the virtues can exist unless they are disinterested, for virtue driven to duty by pleasure as a sort of pay is not virtue at all but a deceptive sham and pretence of virtue. | |
From: M. Tullius Cicero (Academica [c.45 BCE], II.xlvi.140) |