Locke’s Principle of Proportionality
-
Mark Boespflug
Abstract
Locke’s principle of proportionality – among his most important contributions to philosophy – states that we ought to apportion our assent to a given proposition in accord with the probability of that proposition on an adequate body of evidence. I argue that treatments of Locke’s principle fail to avoid interpreting it as a fundamentally doxastic prescription – a precept concerning how we ought to voluntarily control our assent. These interpretations are problematic on account of their implications concerning the degree of control that agents have over the doxastic process, and on account of how they cohere with numerous texts in the Essay. I suggest that the principle, instead, commends that we engage in certain activities, or practices, that tend to produce true beliefs.
Alston, W. 1989. Epistemic Justification: Essays in the Theory of Knowledge. Ithaca.Search in Google Scholar
Audi, R. 2008. “The Ethics of Belief: Doxastic Self-Control and Intellectual Virtue.” Synthese 161, 403–418.10.1007/s11229-006-9092-2Search in Google Scholar
Ayers, M. 1991. Locke; Volume I: Epistemology. New York.Search in Google Scholar
Bolton, M. 2008. “Intellectual Virtue and Moral Law in Locke’s Ethics.” In Contemporary Perspectives on Early Modern Philosophy; Essays in Honor of Vere Chappell. Eds. P. Hoffman/D. Owen/G. Yaffe. Peterborough, 253–272.Search in Google Scholar
Buchak, L. 2014. “Belief, Credence, and Norms.” Philosophical Studies 169, 285–311.10.1007/s11098-013-0182-ySearch in Google Scholar
Dougherty, T. “The Ethics of Belief is Ethics (Period): Reassigning Responsibilism.” In The Ethics of Belief: Individual and Social. Eds. J. Matheson/R. Vitz. Oxford, 146–167.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199686520.003.0009Search in Google Scholar
Goldie, M. (ed.) 1997. Locke: Political Essays. Trans. by P. Abrams. Cambridge.Search in Google Scholar
Hubert, F. (ed.) 2009. Degrees of Belief. London.10.1007/978-1-4020-9198-8_1Search in Google Scholar
Klibansky, R. (ed.) 1968. John Locke: Epistola de Tolerantia; A Letter on Toleration. Trans. J. Gough. Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Locke, J. 1997. “An Essay on Toleration.” In Goldie 1997.Search in Google Scholar
–. 1997. “The First Tract on Government”. In Goldie 1997.Search in Google Scholar
–. 1979. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Ed. P. H. Nidditch. New York.10.1093/oseo/instance.00018020Search in Google Scholar
–. 1968. “A Letter on Toleration.” Trans. Gough. In Klibansky 1968.Search in Google Scholar
Lolordo, A. 2016.“Locke on Knowledge and Belief.” In A Companion to Locke. Ed. M. Stuart. Malden, 296–312.10.1002/9781118328705.ch15Search in Google Scholar
Losonsky, M. 1996. “John Locke on Passion, Will and Belief.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 4, 267–83.10.1080/09608789608570942Search in Google Scholar
–. 2003. Enlightenment and Action From Descartes to Kant: Passionate Thought. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511498244Search in Google Scholar
Passmore, J. 1986. “Locke and the Ethics of Belief.” In Rationalism, Empiricism, and Idealism. Ed. A. Kenny. New York, 23–46.10.4324/9780203754368-7Search in Google Scholar
Plantinga, A. 1993. Warrant: The Current Debate. New York.10.1093/0195078624.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Ryle, G.2009. “John Locke”. In Critical Essays, collected papers of G. Ryle. New York.10.22201/iifs.18704905e.1967.11Search in Google Scholar
Schouls, P. 1992. Reasoned Freedom: John Locke and Enlightenment. Ithaca.10.7591/9781501718342Search in Google Scholar
Stuart, M. (ed.) 2016. A Companion to Locke. Malden, 2016.10.1002/9781118328705Search in Google Scholar
Tully, J. 1988. “Governing Conduct.” In Conscience and Casuistry in Early Modern Europe. Ed. E. Leites. Cambridge, 12–71.10.1017/CBO9780511521430.002Search in Google Scholar
Wolterstorff, N. 1996. John Locke and the Ethics of Belief. Cambridge.10.1017/CBO9780511598234Search in Google Scholar
Woolhouse, R. 2007. Locke: A Biography. New York.Search in Google Scholar
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Refining Motivational Intellectualism: Plato’s Protagoras and Phaedo
- Aristotle and Crossing the Boundaries between the Sciences
- Hume’s Answer to Bayle on the Vacuum
- Locke’s Principle of Proportionality
- Three Myths About Kant’s Second Antinomy
- Discussion
- Hume, Mandeville, Butler, and “that Vulgar Dispute”
- Book Reviews
- Dominic J. O’Meara, Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works, Cambridge University Press, 2017, xi + 157 pp., https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316869581
- Ryan Patrick Hanley, Love’s Enlightenment. Rethinking Charity in Modernity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017, xv + 182 pp.
Articles in the same Issue
- Titelseiten
- Articles
- Refining Motivational Intellectualism: Plato’s Protagoras and Phaedo
- Aristotle and Crossing the Boundaries between the Sciences
- Hume’s Answer to Bayle on the Vacuum
- Locke’s Principle of Proportionality
- Three Myths About Kant’s Second Antinomy
- Discussion
- Hume, Mandeville, Butler, and “that Vulgar Dispute”
- Book Reviews
- Dominic J. O’Meara, Cosmology and Politics in Plato’s Later Works, Cambridge University Press, 2017, xi + 157 pp., https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316869581
- Ryan Patrick Hanley, Love’s Enlightenment. Rethinking Charity in Modernity. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2017, xv + 182 pp.
