David Hume from the "Prelude to the Enlightenment" course
David Hume (1711 - 1776) is considered one of the most important philosophers in the history of philosophy. He was a central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment and has had an enormous influence on Anglo-American (or "analytic philosophy") to this day. His impact on the philosophies of the physical and cognitive sciences has been enormous, and he also had a great influence on the philosophy of fellow Scotsman Adam Smith and the Englishman Jerery Bentham.
Hume was probably the most skeptical philosopher of the Enlightenment. He was a strict empiricist who, like John Locke, denied the mind had innate ideas and argued, like Locke, that all ideas came through sense experience. Unlike Locke, Hume greatly mistrusted reason to give us absolute knowledge of the world.
Although he never claimed to be one, Hume was considered an atheist in his time and almost certainly was one. He denied the existence of natural law and natural rights.
Hume's Theory of Moral Sympathy
Hume says that moral approval is not a judgment of reason but an emotional response. The details of this part of his theory rest on a distinction between three psychologically distinct players: the moral agent, the receiver, and the moral spectator. The moral agent is the person who performs an action, such as stealing a car; the receiver is the person impacted by the conduct, such as the owner of the stolen car; and the moral spectator is the person who observes and, in this case, disapproves of the agent’s action.
For Hume, all actions of a moral agent are motivated by character traits, specifically either virtuous or vicious character traits. For example, if you donate money to a charity, then your action is motivated by a virtuous character trait. Hume argues that some virtuous character traits are instinctive or natural, such as benevolence, and others are acquired or artificial, such as justice.
As an agent, your action will have an effect on a receiver. For example, if you as the agent give food to a starving person, then the receiver will experience an immediately agreeable feeling from your act. Also, the receiver may see the usefulness of your food donation, insofar as eating food will improve his health. When considering the usefulness of your food donation, then, the receiver will receive another agreeable feeling from your act.
Finally, a spectator observes these agreeable feelings that the receiver experiences. He will sympathetically experience agreeable feelings along with the receiver. These sympathetic feelings of pleasure constitute moral approval of the original act of charity that the agent performs. By sympathetically experiencing this pleasure, the observer pronounces the motivating character trait to be a virtue, as opposed to a vice. Suppose, on the other hand, that an agent did something to hurt the receiver, such as steal his car. The spectator would then sympathetically experience the receiver’s pain and thereby pronounce your motivating character trait to be a vice, as opposed to a virtue.
Finally, given various combinations of spectators and receivers, Hume concludes that there are four irreducible categories of qualities that exhaustively constitute moral virtue: (1) qualities useful to others, which include benevolence, meekness, charity, justice, fidelity and veracity; (2) qualities useful to oneself, which include industry, perseverance, and patience; (3) qualities immediately agreeable to others, which include wit, eloquence and cleanliness; and (4) qualities immediately agreeable to oneself, which include good humor, self-esteem and pride. For Hume, most morally significant qualities and actions seem to fall into more than one of these categories.
When Hume spoke about an agent’s “useful” consequences, he often used the word “utility” as a synonym. This is particularly so in the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals where the term “utility” appears over 50 times. Moral theorists after Hume thus depicted his moral theory as the “theory of utility”—namely, that morality involves assessing the pleasing and painful consequences of actions on the receiver. It is this concept and terminology that inspired classic utilitarian philosophers, such as Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832).
See also, David Hume on the imagination
Hume's social and politcal philosophy
Hume's Theory of Moral Sympathy
Hume says that moral approval is not a judgment of reason but an emotional response. The details of this part of his theory rest on a distinction between three psychologically distinct players: the moral agent, the receiver, and the moral spectator. The moral agent is the person who performs an action, such as stealing a car; the receiver is the person impacted by the conduct, such as the owner of the stolen car; and the moral spectator is the person who observes and, in this case, disapproves of the agent’s action.
For Hume, all actions of a moral agent are motivated by character traits, specifically either virtuous or vicious character traits. For example, if you donate money to a charity, then your action is motivated by a virtuous character trait. Hume argues that some virtuous character traits are instinctive or natural, such as benevolence, and others are acquired or artificial, such as justice.
As an agent, your action will have an effect on a receiver. For example, if you as the agent give food to a starving person, then the receiver will experience an immediately agreeable feeling from your act. Also, the receiver may see the usefulness of your food donation, insofar as eating food will improve his health. When considering the usefulness of your food donation, then, the receiver will receive another agreeable feeling from your act.
Finally, a spectator observes these agreeable feelings that the receiver experiences. He will sympathetically experience agreeable feelings along with the receiver. These sympathetic feelings of pleasure constitute moral approval of the original act of charity that the agent performs. By sympathetically experiencing this pleasure, the observer pronounces the motivating character trait to be a virtue, as opposed to a vice. Suppose, on the other hand, that an agent did something to hurt the receiver, such as steal his car. The spectator would then sympathetically experience the receiver’s pain and thereby pronounce your motivating character trait to be a vice, as opposed to a virtue.
Finally, given various combinations of spectators and receivers, Hume concludes that there are four irreducible categories of qualities that exhaustively constitute moral virtue: (1) qualities useful to others, which include benevolence, meekness, charity, justice, fidelity and veracity; (2) qualities useful to oneself, which include industry, perseverance, and patience; (3) qualities immediately agreeable to others, which include wit, eloquence and cleanliness; and (4) qualities immediately agreeable to oneself, which include good humor, self-esteem and pride. For Hume, most morally significant qualities and actions seem to fall into more than one of these categories.
When Hume spoke about an agent’s “useful” consequences, he often used the word “utility” as a synonym. This is particularly so in the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals where the term “utility” appears over 50 times. Moral theorists after Hume thus depicted his moral theory as the “theory of utility”—namely, that morality involves assessing the pleasing and painful consequences of actions on the receiver. It is this concept and terminology that inspired classic utilitarian philosophers, such as Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832).
See also, David Hume on the imagination
Hume's social and politcal philosophy
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