David Hume

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

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Produktbeschreibung

Judging it to be "of all my writings incomparably the best," Hume accurately assessed this groundbreaking classic, which continues to influence philosophical thinking on ethics to this day through the force of its ideas and its clarity of expression. Among the many insights that Hume expounds in this work is that morality is grounded in feelings, not in knowledge. Based on moral sentiment, people naturally value agreeable qualities and shun disagreeable ones. On closer analysis, Hume concludes that the feeling of agreeableness comes from an innate perception of the utility of a particular quality or person to one's self. Anticipating later utilitarian philosophy, he maintains that the virtues that are most highly esteemed are those that have the greatest usefulness to most people. Justice, for example, is greatly prized because it ideally ensures to everyone a fair share of happiness and security. Hume puts special emphasis on altruism, which he says is rooted in the natural feeling that each of us has for our fellow human beings. When surrounded by people in enjoyable circumstances, we tend also to feel the same enjoyment, and when learning of tragedy, even among people on the other side of the world, we tend to feel sad. Out of such natural sympathy and our general moral sentiments, moral distinctions between good and bad arise, and we are motivated to direct our actions toward ideal goals, not only for ourselves but especially for others. In many ways, Hume's thinking about ethics was considered radical in its day. His empirical method of interpreting morality as an outgrowth of innate, human emotions helped to steer later philosophy away from the transcendentalist notions of ethics that had earlier prevailed.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Prometheus
• Seitenzahl: 184
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Mai 2004
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 213mm x 137mm x 10mm
• Gewicht: 231g
• ISBN-13: 9781591021469
• ISBN-10: 1591021464
• Artikelnr.: 22330571

Autorenporträt

David Hume (7 May 1711 NS - 25 August 1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, student of history, economist, librarian, and writer. He is most popular for his profoundly persuasive philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. argued against the presence of intrinsic thoughts, positing that all human information derives solely from experience. He studied philosophy at the College of Edinburgh at an abnormally early age of 12 or 13. Hume never wedded and resided partly at his Berwickshire home in Chirnside, which had a place with his family beginning around 1604. Hume's doctor determined him to have the "Sickness of the Learned" after he created scurvy and different maladies. He was secretary to General James St Clair, who was an emissary to Turin and Vienna. Hume wrote A Treatise of Human Nature in 1738 and The History of England in 1754. In 1745, during the Jacobite risings, Hume mentored the Marquess of Annandale (1720-92), an engagement that finished in confusion. He is viewed as one of the main philosophers to write in English. The David Hume Tower, a University of Edinburgh building, was renamed in a protest over his writing on race.