Stanley Fish's Critique of John Locke's Concept of Toleration Essay

Stanley Fishs Critique of caper Lockes Concept of Toleration - Essay ExampleLocke argues that thither is no phantasmal support for use of coercion, and thus it should non be used to bring persons to salvation. He also often cites his concerns on the level of hypocrisy, he visors out that those persons who are so quick to slander are themselves ignorant of the to the highest degree grievous sins that happen around them. These transgressions represent a much great threat eternally than do the sins that they seek to persecute. In the earn, Locke cites many more hardly similar religious arguments he further proceeds to provide three reasons which he believes should provide enough grounds for preventing the verbalise to coerce people into adopting specified religious beliefs. First, he identifies that the concern for man soul has not been bequeathed to the magistrate by either God or humans. This argument borders on the view presented in the Two Treatises to confound the esse ntial freedom and sameness of humans. There is no authority within the Bible that requires the magistrate to commit people to the true faith and that persons should not agree to such(prenominal) an idea for the state as it is impossible for human, at will, to wear as true what the magistrate identifies as true .Their faith is founded on that they consider as true and not really what they wish. Lockes second argument holds that as the governments power is yielded in its force, and religious belief is primarily about free choice founded on inward persuasion of the mind, then it follows that force cannot be used to compel people to follow religion. The third and last argument identifies that even though humans state of mind could be altered through force, a state where all conjugated the magistrates religion would not bring additional people to the true religion. This is due to the fact that most magistrates ascribe to false religions. Lockes view on religion and the state has been respected for a aureate period of time, it is not also uncommon to see modern person relating with the very elements of his thoughts. This should not be taken to mean that his argument as detailed in the Letter Concerning Toleration is flawed but it means that just like in every philosophical work owners prejudices rule their way into the argument (Fish, 19972255). This is often exposed by a through look at the points advanced and constructive criticism of the same allowing a subsequent reader to identify the areas of weakness. such is the case with Lockes arguments, a number of modern thinkers have criticized his argument bringing out weaknesses that see to weaken the argument. In the following part, this study focuses on such criticism as advanced by Stanley Fish. Fishs criticism titled Mission impossible Settling the just bounds mingled with the church and the state seeks to reconcile the two, religion and state a task which appears impossible under John Lockes restoration argument. Fishs argument starts with Lockes assertion at the beginning of his letter that every church is orthodox to itself and that in a situation where there emerge conflicts between these orthodoxies there would be no one on earth able of moderating between them. In such situations Locke insists on the need for tolerance, however, the problem is that if this is allowed to regulate behavior then the role of government as a regulator of wrongful conduct would be curtailed by those who cite that their wrongful conduct is informed by their