Lazy Lethargy and Fullness of Joy

Abstract


 
 
 In a remarkable passage of Chapter III of Book I of the Essay Concerning Human Understanding Locke writes:
 Nature, I confess, has put into Man a desire of Happiness, and an aversion to Misery: These indeed are innate practical Principles, which (as practical Principles ought) do continue constantly to operate and influence all our Actions, without ceasing: These may be observ’d in all Persons and all Ages, steady and universal. (67)
 Only in Book II does Locke explain what this universal desire of happiness is. This explanation appears in the context of an account of the ‘Fountains of Knowledge’ (104), an account of the origin of ideas. It thus often seems that in discussing desire Locke is discussing the origin of an idea. But this appearance is misleading. Locke can only be understood if the place of feelings (feelings like pleasure, pain, or desire) in his general account of the faculties of the mind is properly determined. I shall argue that in the Essay Locke distinguishes desiring both from perceiving ideas (the operation of the faculty of the understanding) and from willing (the operation of the faculty of the will), i.e. that he is, at least implicitly, committed to the existence of a faculty of feeling (Section I). This will clarify what is actually implied in his claim that ‘All Men desire Happiness, that’s past doubt’ (279) (Section II). Perhaps surprisingly, Locke will appear in the company of philosophers who thought that we can desire happiness and search after it only because we somehow know it, and that we know it only because we somehow already have it.