Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Hypothetical Necessity And The Laws Of Nature: John Locke On God's Legislative Power, Elliot Rossiter
Hypothetical Necessity And The Laws Of Nature: John Locke On God's Legislative Power, Elliot Rossiter
Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository
The focus of my dissertation is a general and comprehensive examination of Locke’s view of divine power. My basic argument is that John Locke is a theological voluntarist in his understanding of God’s creative and providential relationship with the world, including both the natural and moral order. As a voluntarist, Locke holds that God freely imposes both the physical and moral laws of nature onto creation by means of his will: this contrasts with the intellectualist perspective in which the laws of nature emerge from the essences of things. For Locke, there are no intrinsically necessary laws in the created …