The Treatment of Personality by Locke, Berkeley and Hume: A Study, in the Interests of Ethical Theory, of an Aspect of the Dialectic of English Empiricism

"The Conception of the Person as related to Ethical Theory"A casual glance at modern ethical systems reveals their use of such notions as: Ideal, Right, Wrong, Obligation, Responsibility, Freedom, and a number of closely allied conceptions which are usually given a meaning, however attenuated, in ethical systems which claim adequacy. Certain other conceptions, whose names have come to be applied to familiar types of ethical theories, find their place in any systematic pronouncements; and their disposal usually indicates the general character of the system. Among such conceptions are: Egoism, Altruism, Publicism, Hedonism, Rationalism, and the like.In dealing with fundamental ethical conceptions such as have been mentioned, the simplest fact of all concerning them has often been neglected. In ethical discussion they are frequently treated as merely abstract conceptions; whereas their true significance is as determinations of persons, -- indeed one might call them "predicates of ethical personality." For instance, it is not with Responsibility with which we have to do primarily, but with responsible persons; not with Freedom as an airy something with a name, but with free persons. And so Obligation has no meaning apart from obliged persons. The Ideal is always the ideal of a person,--indeed, it itself may prove to be a person. And as for Right and Wrong, nothing is ever right or wrong in the last resort but persons, however fitly we may apply these terms, in a secondary sense, to particular courses of conduct. And so Hedonism has to do with persons as happy, and Rationalism with rational persons; while Egoism and Altruism directly refer to a world of persons, each with its own peculiar emphasis. We deal not with Morality, but with moral persons, whose morality is with reference to persons. In short, and above all, our question is never just "What is ethics?" Most truly stated, it is 'What is the ethical person?'