A History of Western Philosophy

doctrine, it is not pleasure as such that is desired, since a proximate pleasure is more desired than
a remote one. If morality is to be deduced from the psychology of desire, as Locke and his
disciples attempt to do, there can be no reason for deprecating the discounting of distant pleasures,
or for urging prudence as a moral duty. His argument, in a nutshell, is: "We only desire pleasure.
But, in fact, many men desire, not pleasure as such, but proximate pleasure. This contradicts our
doctrine that they desire pleasure as such, and is therefore wicked." Almost all philosophers, in
their ethical systems, first lay down a false doctrine, and then argue that wickedness consists in
acting in a manner that proves it false, which would be impossible if the doctrine were true. Of
this pattern Locke affords an example.

CHAPTER XIV Locke's Political Philosophy

A. THE HEREDITARY PRINCIPLE

IN the years 1689 and 1690, just after the Revolution of 1688, Locke wrote his two Treatises on
Government, of which the second especially is very important in the history of political ideas.

The first of these two treatises is a criticism of the doctrine of hereditary power. It is a reply to Sir
Robert Filmer Patriarcha: or The Natural Power of Kings, which was published in 1680, but
written under Charles I. Sir Robert Filmer, who was a devout upholder of the divine right of
kings, had the misfortune to live till 1653, and must have suffered acutely from the execution of
Charles I and the victory of Cromwell. But Patriarcha was written before these sad events,
thought not before the Civil War, so that it naturally shows awareness of the existence of
subversive doctrines. Such doctrines, as Filmer points out, were not new in 1640. In fact, both
Protestant and Catholic divines, in their contest with Catholic and