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Unlocking Moral Philosophy: Insights from Hume's Ethics

Dive into David Hume's groundbreaking ethical theories, exploring the origins of moral principles from human sentiments and psychological observations. This project sheds light on how moral judgments are formed and the role reason plays in guiding ethical behavior.

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Unlocking Moral Philosophy: Insights from Hume's Ethics

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Presentation Transcript

  1. Hume1711 - 1776 “Be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.”

  2. Ethics: The Rule of the Passions -- The Slavery of Reason • Enlightenment philosopher: sees the scientific method as the universal key that will unlock the answers to all problems

  3. Descriptive Project (rather than Prescriptive) • Describes how moral principles arise and function in human life • Anthropology/Psychology • Derives ethical terms from psychological observations (he makes his case by referring you to your own moral feelings)

  4. How Are We To Analyze Moral Judgments? • Reason is used to discover truth or falsehood. It tells us what is logically necessary and what is contradictory. • Morality: not concerned just with what is true but with what I ought to do

  5. The Smoking Gun • Does Reason produce moral principles by deriving them from matters of fact? • Murder: “Examine it in all lights, and see if you can find that matter of fact, or real existence, which you call vice.” • “You never can find it, till you turn your reflection into your own breast, and find a sentiment of disapprobation [disapproval], which arises in you, towards this action.”

  6. The Source of Morality: Sentiment • It is not derived from deductive or inductive operations of our reason. • It arises from sentiment, feelings or the passions.

  7. Metaphysics/Epistemology • Metaphysics: Virtue & Vice are Natural • Epistemology: Empiricist: moral approval/disapproval can only arise out of our feelings

  8. The Bedrock of Morality: Feelings • How do moral rules arise from this foundation? • Moral rules: 2 Sources 1. Social Utility 2. Sympathy

  9. Social Utility • Utilitarianism • Some moral rules don’t seem to follow natural inclinations • Such Rules are artificial, human inventions that serve everyone’s long-term interests.

  10. Sympathetic BenevolenceMoral Bedrock • Feelings of approval/disapproval • General Benevolence for all humanity • Human experience refutes psychological egoism • Sympathetic Benevolence: can’t be reduced to or explained by any other principle or motive

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