POOPmom

What we ought to do depends greatly on the situation in which we find ourselves. Ethics is concerned with human nature, while political philosophy deals with what happens when human beings interact. The human body is like a machine, and that political organization is like an artificial human being. The truth can be gauged only by self-examination, by looking into ourselves to decide our characteristic thoughts and passions, which form the basis of all human action.

Thought itself, must be understood as an instance of the physical operation of the human body. Sensation involves a series of mechanical processes operating within the human nervous system, which means the sensible features of material things produce ideas in the brains of the human beings who perceive them.

The state of nature is “natural” in one specific sense only. I believe that the only authority that naturally exists among human beings is that of a mother over her child, because the child is so much weaker than the mother. It is extremely unlikely that human beings will live in security and peaceful cooperation without government. We have a right to do whatever we think will ensure our self-preservation. The worst that can happen to us is violent death at the hands of others. “The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have no place [in the state of nature].”

The sovereign should determine the proper forms of religious worship, and citizens never have duties to God that override their duty to obey political authority. Religious and civic authority must be united under one source. The sovereign must be the head of the church in society as he is head of all else. True Christian doctrine itself is not opposing to my political philosophy but in fact supports it.