Utilitarian and Rule-Utilitarian Elements in Berkeley’s Normative Ethics

Abstract

Among the signs in the natural language are those called pleasures and pains. For Berkeley, they are but intense sensations, or at least, pleasures and pains of sense are but intense sensations. These particular ideas of sense are deeply involved in the ways we learn the nature of our personal welfare, and together with other kinds of pleasures and pains, they also enable us to learn the nature of public welfare or well-being. In this chapter I shall discuss this matter, as well as the nature of private and public good and the rules we must follow to attain either. There are conflicting interpretations of the logical structure and roles of these rules, and this topic will be studied in conjunction with a discussion of Passive Obedience. In addition, there are other types of evidence which Berkeley adduces in favor of his conclusions, and I shall explain these.