Cumberland's best known work is De Legibus Naturae (1672), the
title-page of profess to "consider and refute… the elements of Mr.
Hobbes's Philosophy, as well Moral as Civil." It puts forward a
doctrine of morality which is based on the law of nature, and this is
accompanied by a running criticism of Hobbes's views. Cumberland looks
upon the law of nature as capable of being inferred from observation
of physical and mental phenomena (themselves due to the will of God),
and at the same time as pointing out the "action of a rational agent
which will chiefly promote the common good."
He attacks the neo-Platonists, and the theory of innate ideas as a
Platonic error:
The Platonists, indeed, clear up this Difficulty in an easier
manner, by the Supposition of innate ideas, as well of the Laws of
Nature themselves, as of those Matters about which they are
conservant; but, truly, I have not been so happy as to learn the Laws
of Nature in so short a way. Nor seems it to me well advised, to build
the Doctrine of natural Religion and Morality upon an Hypothesis,
which has been by the generality of Philosophers as well Heathen as
Christian, and can never be proved against the Epicureans, with whom
is our chief controversy. [Introduction, Sect. 5]
Laws of Nature, in this ethical reference, are defined by him as
"propositions of unchangeable Truth, which direct our voluntary
Actions about choosing Good and Evil; and impose an Obligation to
external actions even without civil Laws, and laying aside all
Considerations of those compacts which constitute civil government"
(Ch. 1, p. 39).
He defines "Good" as "that which preserves, or enlarges and perfects,
the Faculties of any one thing, or of several" (Ch. 2, p. 165). It
follows that the Law of Nature prescribes those actions which "will
chiefly promote the common Good, and by which only the entire
Happiness of particular Persons can be obtained" (Ch. 5, p. 189). He
also includes both happiness and perfection, or development of
faculty, as inseparable elements in the Good. He is particularly
concerned with the determination of the form of conduct which will
lead to the attainment of this end; and his conclusion is that the
best method of securing it is that of benevolence, or regard for the
common good, as opposed to selfish preoccupation with our own
individual interests. "The greatest Benevolence of every rational
Agent towards all, forms the happiness state of every, and of all the
Benevolent, as far as is in their Power; and is necessarily requisite
to the happiest State which they can attain, and therefore the common
Good is the supreme Law" (Ch. 1). This endeavor to promote the common
good "includes our Love of God, and of all Mankind, who are the Parts
of this System. God, indeed, is the principal Part; Men the
subordinate: A benevolence toward both includes Piety and Humanity,
that is, both Tables of the Law of Nature" (Introduction, Sect. 15, p.
20).
He repeatedly points out that the common good includes our own, as one
of its parts; but it must be sought only as a part, in subordination
to the whole. Cumberland's confidence in the perfect coincidence of
virtue, or benevolence, and individual happiness ultimately depends
upon his doctrine of the divine sanctions of the Laws of Nature. But
his main interest in the ethical question is to insist, against
Hobbes, upon the "naturalness" of the law of benevolence and the
inherent unreasonableness of separating the individual and his good
from the system of rational beings of which he is in reality only a
part, and with whose good his own is inseparably bound up. Thus, he
thinks that the "rules of life" are as plain as the "art of
numbering," and the following propositions are laid down as
necessarily true: (1) "that the good of all rational beings is greater
than the like good of any part of that aggregate body, that is, that
it is truly the greatest good"; (2) "that in promoting the good of
this whole aggregate, the good of individuals is contained and
promoted"; and (3) "that the good of every particular part requires
the introducing and settling of distinct property in such things, and
such services of rational agents, as contribute to the common
happiness."
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