John Locke's Duty-Based Ethical Considerations

Duty-Based Ethical Considerations

This section will discuss the request for religious accommodation by making duty- based ethical consideration in twofold. The former section will discuss John Locke’s duty of toleration and the latter section will be devoted to a discussion of a duty of neutrality or principle of neutrality argued by Robert Audi.

In the Letter Concerning Toleration, John Locke engages readers with the idea of a toleration. This was based on the premise that “neither single persons nor churches nay nor even commonwealths have any just title to invade the civil rights and worldly goods of each other upon pretence of religion” ( Locke 1689, pg. 15). According to Locke, the toleration of religion is important to upkeep civil

Are all such opinions & actions as in themselves concerne not government or society at all & such are purely speculative opinions, & Divine Worship

2. Are such too concerned society, but are also good or bad in their own & these are moral virtues & Vices

3. Are such as in their own nature are neither good nor bat but yet concern society & mens conversations with another, & these are all practical opinions & actions in matter of indifference” ( Locke 1954, pg.145).

All religions are a combination of speculative and moral opinions (Newman 2017). Purely speculative opinions are those that relate to divine worship. This manifestations of divine worship are subject to an absolute and universal right to toleration. However, purely speculative opinions can be tolerated so long as they involve other members of the political community. “Meliboeus, whose calf it is, may lawfully kill his calf at home, and burn any part of it that he thinks fit. For no injury is thereby done to anyone, no prejudice to another man’s goods” ( Locke 1689, pg. 25). Individuals within civil society possess a duty of toleration but only do so to the point where it in no way impacts the civil liberties of other members of the political community. Moral actions and/or opinions differ

John Locke strongly advocates the separation of church and state and does so based on their functionality (Newman 2017,). Functionally, there is a separation between the role of the commonwealth and the church. According to Locke, the commonwealth exists to protect civil interests and the role of the commonwealth does not pertain to the salvation of the soul. Contrastly, the church has no place meddling in civil affairs. The different forms of authority for each institution is based on their role. For example, the state must have coercive force to protect life and property. However, churches have no need for coercion because no amount of violence can persuade a person to accept a belief that they do not otherwise truly have faith in. These points can be applied to the role of a university and its responsibility or lack thereof to make religious accommodation. What is the role of a university and does this role give it the authority to allow or limit actions that pertain to the salvation of the soul? York University is a secular university or academic institution that provides various educational programs to a student body. It is also a secular institution and functions based on the principles of the separation of church and state (Bradshaw 2014). As a result,