Duties, 2

Abstract

“God has made us for the purpose of living in society with each other under one law, universal Reason, and has made us all dependent on one [His own]” (II/6/1). Created as social beings, we are social in a temporal sense, and also intended for a society of eternal duration. This much of the Augustinian “two cities” doctrine is adopted by Malebranche. However, in his day that same doctrine was variously interpreted, one chief view being that each of the two “cities” requires its own ethics. There would be a Christian ethic for eternity and a temporal ethic decided by usage. Malebranche challenges this dichotomy at the outset of his discussion of social obligation and the types of relations or contexts he finds within society which require men’s love to be determined in particular ways. Before breaking down those types of relations, he makes it clear that the distinction between the two societies is real enough, for earthly society is characterized by particular goods, perishable ones, “whose end would be comfort and conservation of the body’s life; and [the eternal society] , a society governed by Reason, sustained by faith, subsisting in the communion of true goods, the end of which would be a life blessed for eternity” (II/6/2). However, rather than waiting until after death for that eternal society to commence, “we are to begin here below, by means of the charity we are obliged to have for each other” (II/6/4).¹