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Passive Obedience, or the Christian Doctrine of Not Resisting the Supreme Power

George Berkeley

Language:
English
Status:
Complete work
Authorship:
Written by the author
Condition of the text:
Clean text · 1 illegible passages, excluded from answers
Extent:
~15,400 words · 73 passages
Cite this work
  • APAGeorge Berkeley. (n.d.). Passive Obedience, or the Christian Doctrine of Not Resisting the Supreme Power. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/george-berkeley/passive-obedience-or-the-christian-doctrine-of-not-resisting-the-supreme-power
  • MLAGeorge Berkeley. "Passive Obedience, or the Christian Doctrine of Not Resisting the Supreme Power." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/george-berkeley/passive-obedience-or-the-christian-doctrine-of-not-resisting-the-supreme-power.
  • ChicagoGeorge Berkeley. Passive Obedience, or the Christian Doctrine of Not Resisting the Supreme Power. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/george-berkeley/passive-obedience-or-the-christian-doctrine-of-not-resisting-the-supreme-power.

What it is about

Passive Obedience (1712): why the supreme power may not be resisted.

Context and history

Sermons arguing that submission to the sovereign is an obligation without exceptions. It is his most uncomfortable text and it cost him years of preferment, since it was read as Jacobite. But it contains something of philosophical weight: one of the first statements of rule utilitarianism.

Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.

Power : But that Submiſfon to Government ſhou'd be Meaſured and Limited by the Public Good of the Society ; and that therefore Subjects may Lawſully Reſiſt the Supreme Authority, in thoſe Caſes where the Public Good ſhall plainly ſeem to require it: Nay, that it 1s their Duty to do ſo, inaſmuch as theykare all under an indi-ſpenſable Obligation to promote the Common er: T beſe and the like Notions, which T cannot help thinking Pernicious to Mankind and Repugnant to Right Reaſon, having of late Tears been Induſtriouſly Cultivated, and ſet in the moſt Advantageous Lights by Men of Parts and Learning, it ſeemed neceſſary to Arm the Touth of our Univer ſity againſt them, and take care they go into the World well Principled; I do | not mean Obſtinately Prejudic'd in favour of - } - : „ 5 F hi_—_cq-c-<=- Slay eo omuands eo» a To the Reader. a Party, but from an early Acquaintance with their Duty, and the clear Rational Grounds of it, Determin'd to ſuch Praclices as may ſpeak them Good Chriſtians and Loyal Subjects. In this View, I made three Diſcourſes not many Months ſince in the College- Chapel, which ſome who heard them thought it might be of Uſe to make more Public : And indeed, the falſe Accounts hat are gone abroad concerning them, have wade it neceſſary. Accoramply J now ſend them into the World under the Form of one entire Diſcourſe. Þ 20 Conclude; As in Writing thefe T houzhts it was

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