david hume moral and political theorist oct 2007

[...]... Life,’ xxxiv 16 david hume: moral and political theorist Rawls offers this syllogism for Hume s rejection of reason as a guide to the content of morality: Reason alone cannot move us to action; Knowledge of morality can move us to action; Therefore: Moral distinctions are not discerned by reason.⁴⁸ Note that it is misleading or even wrong here to use the term ‘knowledge.’ We do not have moral knowledge... good fight and Prichard’s later generation, that allows ⁵⁰ Kafka, Tageb¨ cher, 17 Dec, 1910, p 21 u ⁵¹ Prichard, ‘Does Moral Philosophy Rest on a Mistake?’ 17 18 david hume: moral and political theorist one to make such vacuous statements in a mode of deep thought One imagines Prichard’s squinting hard and squeezing his temples to aid in seeing the situation clearly enough and to force correct moral judgments... primarily important today for his political philosophy and some of his other work is largely forgotten Hume is important across the theory of mind and epistemology and all of moral and political philosophy The concern with epistemology (especially psychological epistemology, or how people know what they know or why they believe what they believe) is important in both Hobbes and Hume Both of them write in... wrong but morally defective This fact must discourage moral debate that might subject one’s views to revision and oneself to damnation (Schneewind, ‘The Misfortunes of Virtue,’ 62) 8 david hume: moral and political theorist than lighter ones Why? Because it’s obvious, isn’t it? So why bother to look Unfortunately, as obvious as it seems, it happens to be false Throughout this book, I assume that Hume s... Moral Naturalism in Hume s Treatise,’ 8–9 ⁴² Garrett, Cognition and Commitment in Hume s Philosophy, 190 14 david hume: moral and political theorist burden, if endured without retaliation.’ Therefore, Hareward knows he must duel his insulter to the death.⁴³ Here we have a string of facts about a moral belief Nowhere in that string is a moral fact other than in the prejudices of the boorish Hareward... Political Justice, book 1, chapter 6, p 148 2 david hume: moral and political theorist as going from Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) to John Locke (1632–1704) to Hume (1711–76) to John Stuart Mill (1806–73) Locke is a misfit in many ways and the direct line skips a generation to go from Hobbes to Hume (see chapter 9).⁶ On his Tory leanings, one might also note Hume s remarks on the vacuity of the idea of the... much of the time as Hume writes I will bring him to the foreground, partly to show Hume s debt to him and partly to make Hume s own positions clearer ⁷ Manent, ‘Aurel Kolnai: A Political Philosopher Confronts the Scourge of Our Epoch.’ ⁸ For example, one might compare my views to those of Nicholas Capaldi See Capaldi, David Hume, chap 7, and ‘The Dogmatic Slumber of Hume Scholarship.’ hume s place in history... naturalism and focus on the kind of creatures we are Hobbes and Hume begin the tradition—which Pierre Manent and many others criticize⁷—of not letting value judgments into their analyses, which they see as scientific These issues are closely related and both are discussed below My views on these issues and on the interpretation of Hume s political philosophy are not universally shared.⁸ Indeed, as one Hume. .. institutions, which may be awful ²⁸ Nozick, Anarchy, the State, and Utopia, 90–5 10 david hume: moral and political theorist One might conclude that free-riding in some instance is wrong, but this cannot follow merely from the fact that it is free-riding, as Hart and Rawls wrongly presume Incidentally, Hart uses this argument to establish a political obligation to obey the law, although he later disavowed... of masterpiece of political philosophy It is a great contribution to the theory of social order For Hobbes, that would make it a fundamentally great work of political philosophy, as it should also for Oakeshott In this book I primarily address Hume s political theory, although Hume s work belies a common view that modern philosophers tend to separate moral and political philosophy Hume makes them part .