Book contents
- The Necessity of Nature
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
- The Necessity of Nature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 A Christian Science
- 2 Hobbes’s Doctrine of Necessity
- 3 Necessities, Natural Rights and Sovereignty in Leviathan
- 4 Reformers on the Necessary Knowledge
- 5 Necessity, Free Will and Conscience
- 6 The Grand Business of Nature
- 7 Robert Boyle, the Empire over Nature
- 8 Locke’s Early Writings
- 9 Medicine, Oeconomy and Needs
- 10 Money and the Doctrine of Necessities
- 11 The Scientification of Money
- 12 The Doctrine of Necessities and the (Public) Good
- Conclusions
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
5 - Necessity, Free Will and Conscience
Robert Sanderson
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2023
- The Necessity of Nature
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
- The Necessity of Nature
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figure
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 A Christian Science
- 2 Hobbes’s Doctrine of Necessity
- 3 Necessities, Natural Rights and Sovereignty in Leviathan
- 4 Reformers on the Necessary Knowledge
- 5 Necessity, Free Will and Conscience
- 6 The Grand Business of Nature
- 7 Robert Boyle, the Empire over Nature
- 8 Locke’s Early Writings
- 9 Medicine, Oeconomy and Needs
- 10 Money and the Doctrine of Necessities
- 11 The Scientification of Money
- 12 The Doctrine of Necessities and the (Public) Good
- Conclusions
- Index
- Cambridge Studies in International and Comparative Law
Summary
Chapter 5 considers the theology and moral philosophy of the respected theologian and moral casuist, Robert Sanderson. The divine Sanderson despaired of the unfortunate consequences for practical morality of denying the responsibility and freedom of individuals. In its historical context his doubt amounted to finally rejecting the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. Scholars consider Sanderson’s Several Cases of Conscience Discussed in Ten Lectures in the Divinity School at Oxford a main reference for Locke in the writing of the unpublished Two Tracts of Government and his foundational Essays on the Law of Nature. Sanderson’s work sets out a moral philosophy of free will reinforced by mechanical overtones of necessary causality in reasoning. The chapter briefly analyses this type of ‘mechanical conscience’ and shows how Sanderson was committed to a de facto theory of government.
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- Information
- The Necessity of NatureGod, Science and Money in 17th Century English Law of Nature, pp. 136 - 162Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023