 The question that has plagued Locke scholarship has been how, if at all, the hedonistic elements of Locke’s moral philosophy can be reconciled with his rationalistic account, which suggests that reason can discern morality’s inherent righteousness and motivate accordingly. Some scholars have concluded that Locke effectively abandons the rationalism of his earlier writings by the time he is writing the Essay, and that any such elements found therein are mere holdovers of an earlier position. Von Leyden expresses this view when he writes,