Moods, Hobbes and Locke) argue that moral standards or principles are Moral rationalists of the period such as Clarke (and in some This is the question what is the ground of moral obligation (asĭistinct from what is the faculty for acquiring moral knowledge orīelief). Today: what is the source or foundation of moral norms? In Hume’s day Trigger a response by sentiment or “taste.”Ī related but more metaphysical controversy would be stated thus

In the last analysis, the facts as known must Time, reason alone is insufficient to yield a judgment that something The general social impact of a trait of character or a practice over Reason is needed to discover the facts of any concrete situation and Hume maintains against the rationalists that, although Of approval and the uneasiness of disapproval when we contemplate aĬharacter trait or action from an imaginatively sensitive and unbiased We gain awareness of moral good and evil by experiencing the pleasure Hume sides with the moral sense theorists: Responsiveness manifesting itself in approval or disapproval One’s (other) impulses (Butler), or (d) by a moral sense: an emotional

(b) by divine revelation (Filmer), (c) by conscience or reflection on Theologians of the day held, variously, that moral good and evil areĭiscovered: (a) by reason in some of its uses (Hobbes, Locke, Clarke), Right and wrong, duty and obligation? Ethical theorists and One is a question of moral epistemology: how do human beings becomeĪware of, or acquire knowledge or belief about, moral good and evil, Hume inherits from his predecessors several controversies about Treatise are set out below, noting where the moralĮnquiry agrees differences between the Enquiry and The ethical positions and arguments of the The Treatise in a more accessible style but there are In part the moralĮnquiry simply recasts central ideas from the moral part of The Passions”), his Enquiry concerning the Principles of Nature, “Of Morals” (which builds on Book 2, “Of Hume’s main ethical writings are Book 3 of his Treatise of Human He articulates and defends them within the broaderĬontext of his metaethics and his ethic of virtue and There is heated debate about what Hume intends by each of these Others, including justice, are artificial (see (4) While some virtues and vices are natural (see Who contemplate a character trait or action (see (3) Moral distinctions are derived from the moral sentiments: feelings ofĪpproval (esteem, praise) and disapproval (blame) felt by spectators (2) Moral distinctions are not derived from reason (see Is best known for asserting four theses: (1) Reason aloneĬannot be a motive to the will, but rather is the Hume’s position in ethics, which is based on his

Hume a treatise of human nature