Joseph Butler’s Five Sermons

Joseph Butler believes that people possess the ability to reason and rationalize. 1For Butler, this is evidence for the existence of the conscience. In Joseph Butler’s Five Sermons, he argues that conscience is a reflection on the actions of oneself and others, according to moral principles. 2In his first sermon, Butler states that “we are plainly constituted such sort of creatures as to reflect upon our own nature. 3[and the] principle in man by which he approves or disapproves his heart, temper, and actions, is conscience” (29-30). Butler argues that conscience is God-given and that human nature indicates that “we were made for society and to do good to our fellow creature, as that we were intended to take care of our own life and health and private good” (26). Conscience, as Butler conceives it, should always be obeyed when making moral decisions because it intuitively guides one’s actions toward the good of society and the good of the individual.

Butler identifies two driving factors behind moral decision making: self-love (not to be confused with selfishness, which has particular ends) and benevolence. 4He claims that “there is a natural principle of benevolence in man, which is in some degree to society what self-love is to the individual” (26). 5Butler claims that it is evident that human beings have benevolent motivations, and he argues that these benevolent motivations can make us happy and be consistent with self-interest. However, “benevolence and self-love are different” (27). Self-love is our general interest in securing our own happiness, while benevolence is seeking the well-being of another. But “their mutual coinciding, so that we can scarce promote one without the other, is equally proof that we were made for bot...

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...y” (45), which is why Rosa Parks conscience proved to be correct, as were the consciences of all of those who followed her in the Bus Boycott. This suggests the conscience does not come from society, and (when guided by the real nature of people) is universal throughout cultures and times.

Joseph Butler illustrates that the conscience is the final moral decision-maker. In his Five Sermons, Butler explains that the conscience is given to us by God to act intuitively and that it acts as the ultimate authority in moral judgments. Conscience, as Butler describes, is useful in making moral decisions for those who follow their real nature and act benevolently and out of self-love, not selfishness.

Butler, Joseph. 7Five Sermons, Preached at the Rolls Chapel and A Dissertation upon the Nature of Virtue. Ed. Stephen L. Darwall. Indianapolis, IN: 6Hackett Pub., 1983. Print.