An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

The following is an e-text of a reprint of the edition of David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Each page was cut out of the.
Table of contents

A Treatise of Human Nature, edited by D. An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, edited by T. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, edited by T. Dialogues concerning Natural Religion and other posthumous publications, edited by M. Stewart About this workAn Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals was Hume's third great philosophical work, first published in Hume's aim in this elegant and lucid work was to present in an accessible way his theory of the foundation of morality in human nature, which had developed significantly since he first addressed the subject in the Treatise of Human Nature.

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He discusses moral psychology; freedom, necessity, and causation; practical reasoning; justice; virtues and other moral qualities. He considered this Enquiry to be 'of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best'. About this volumeThe authoritative version of the text, based upon the edition that was seen through the press by Hume himself, is presented here accurately and clearly. The editor's introduction sets the work in its historical context; the annotation and glossary provide information about Hume's sources, allusions, citations, and meanings, to help readers towards a full understanding of the text.

A biographical appendix identifies the many people mentioned by Hume in the Enquiry. Bibliographies list the works cited by Hume and a selection of the secondary literature. Hume's original index is reproduced, together with a new general index by the editor. In the second part, it The comparison of the Rev. Non-cognitivism Mackie, Blackburn, Gibbard.

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals: Eduardo Bello - - Daimon: Mark Box - - Notes and Queries William Davie - - Hume Studies 26 2: Essays and Treatises on Philosophical Subjects. MacArthur - - Broadview Press. Halberstadt - - Mind Xiaoping Has - - Philosophy and Culture 27 7: Alfred Hoernle - - Mind 48 David Hume - - Felix Meiner Verlag. David Hume - - Ethics 68 2: David Hume - - Liberal Arts Press. David Hume - - Greenwood Press. Selby-Bigge - - Philosophical Review 3 6: And the rhetorical surface, innocent and smiling, helps the deadly magma underneath to fester and seep through while the Hume's essay appears modest, but it cuts deep.

And the rhetorical surface, innocent and smiling, helps the deadly magma underneath to fester and seep through while the reader is pleasantly lost in dreamland. The core message contains at least the following insights: Most of it is good, but there is also some filler. Hume doesn't argue very systematically, which sometimes harms his case.

Stylistically, he is a winner, but many of Hume's empirical examples are tedious, and I could have used a few less quotations often in Latin from classical antiquity.


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Overall, the failure to incorporate a sufficiently rigorous skeleton harms the effect of the book at least on this analytically obsessed reader. But there is just so much there, and the overall effect is so pleasant to read, that the strange absence of a firm foundation doesn't matter much. Besides - and this is the crucial point - if you want a firm rational foundation, you probably shouldn't look for it in a skeptical sentimentalist philosopher whose main mission is to seed emotive doubt. Sep 16, Osbert Neville rated it it was amazing.

From the standpoint of David Hume, morality is in place in conduct flowing from the natural human inclinations we have which are shaped by the social ambience we find ourselves in. Our participation in social life, as we are social animals, requires a reciprocal tempering, correcting, and adjustment in order to achieve something approximating the taste and judgement which make a decent society possible in the first place. We may refer to this as a social mirror - we all depend on the same social From the standpoint of David Hume, morality is in place in conduct flowing from the natural human inclinations we have which are shaped by the social ambience we find ourselves in.

We may refer to this as a social mirror - we all depend on the same social mirror. As Humean "complex" ideas correspond to impressions there's no continental-style pie-in-the-sky intellectual theorising here , complex ideas are formed from "simple" ones, and simple ideas are representations of preceding impressions. Moral principles come from specific social formations - the practices of social life are thus more complex than the preceding immediate impressions of our given society, but they do stem from that selfsame societal source.

May 23, Read Taylor rated it liked it. Short enough to read on a single long flight, and easy to understand but certainly not ground-breaking or daring. Were I not already close to his point of view he would not convince me; that said it is clearly discussed if not exciting.

Feb 21, Michael G rated it it was amazing. Hume's work inspires me again, although as is common in many moral works of the period there are a lot of lists of attributes and the like. Hume tries to avoid doing this too much and the work tries to be more foundational. A bit dry, but well-written and reasonably easy to follow. May 15, Robert Marshall rated it really liked it.

This is good philosophy, but not very much fun to read. Hume beats his dead horse until there's not much left of it. Jun 30, Achmad Soefandi rated it really liked it.

by David Hume

Perdebatan antara empirisme dan rasionalisme mungkin masih terjadi sampai saat ini. Rasionalisme menganggap pengetahuan manusia di dapatkan melalui rasio dan pengalaman inderawi hanya sekedar kabut yang tidak bisa dijadikan patokan kebenaran akan pengetahuan. Berbeda dengan rasionalisme, empirisme justru menekankan pada pengalaman inderawi sebagai satu satunya proses pembentukan kesadaran dan pengetahuan, rasio hanya mengekor pada pengalaman inderawi. Empirisme, berasal dari bahasa Yunani Empere Perdebatan antara empirisme dan rasionalisme mungkin masih terjadi sampai saat ini.

Empirisme, berasal dari bahasa Yunani Empereira yang artinya ter indra dan salah satu tokoh besar dari kubu empirisme adalah David Hume. Sumbangan pemikiran Hume tak lepas dari pemikiran John Locke. Meskipun masih terpengaruh dengan John Locke dan Hume juga mengakui bahwa dia banyak berhutang budi terhadap Locke, tetai Hume juga mengkiritik pemikiran gurunya tersebut. Menurut Hume, filsafat empirisme Locke masih terjebak dengan metafisik yang sangat ditentang oleh Hume.

Kritik terhadap Locke, inilah yang menyebabkan Hume dijuluki sebagai bapak dari empirisme radikal. Dalam filsafatnya Hume sangat menentang hukum kausalitas atau sebab-akibat. Menurut Hume kita tidak dapat menggeneralisir sesuatu hanya disebabkan hukum sebab akibat. Contohnya Kaca tersebut pecah karena saya melempar batu, dari kalimat ini terlihat bahwa lemparan batu menjadi sebab utama causa prima kaca menjadi pecah, menurut Hume belum tentu batu yang dilemparkan tersebut menyebabkan kaca tersebut pecah, bisa saja kaca yang menjadi objek pasif yang terkena gaya dari batu tersebut memiliki ketebalan yang lebih.

Menurut Hume hukum kausalitas ini menyebabkan kita melupakan pengalaman inderawai, karena dalam hukum kausalitas kita seolah olah sudah memprediksi akan suatu hal yang itu merupakan ciri dari metafisik, contohnya seperti batu yang dilempar ke kaca tadi dalam benak kita sebelum melempar batu kita seolah olah sudah meyakini bahwa batu yang ada di tangan dan dilempar bisa memecahkan kaca tersebut. Secara garis besar dan buka bermaksud menggampangkan dengan kekayaan pemikiran Hume, filsafat Hume ini terkait dengan filsafat bahasa.

Hume menjadi salah satu tokoh filsafat bahasa, karena Hume juga berpendapat bahwa kalimat deskriptif tidak bisa dajadikan patokan untuk kalimat imperatif. Kalimat deskriptif adalah kalimat penjabaran dan kalimat imperatif adalah kalimat perintah.

Hume sangat menolak alur pemikiran seperti ini. Penolakan terhadap Hume terhadap hukum kausalitas tersebut menyebabkan Hume menjadi salah satu filsuf ateis, karena Hume tidak mempercayai tuhan sebagai sebab dan alam sebagai akibatnya. Penempatan Hume sebagai filsuf ateis ini masih menjadi tanda tanya, karena di beberapa buku seperti buku karya Hawasi yang berjudul "David Hume" menyatakan bahwa Hume bukan seorang ateis, tetapi seorang agnostik.

Pengertian agnostis adalah tidak mempercayai akan keberadaan tuhan, tapi juga tidak percaya bahwa tuhan tidak ada. Pemosisian Hume sebagai seorang agnostik ini tak lepas dari salah satu pendapat yang diutarakan Hume sewaktu ditanyakan mengenai neraka dan jawaban Hume adalah "adakalanya batu bara yang diceburkan kedalam api, tidak ikut terbakar", dari ungkapan tersebut Hawasi menafsirkan bahwa Hume masih membuka kemungkinan bahwa dia juga percaya akan eksistensi Tuhan.

Sekilas mengenai latar belakang Hume: Sosok ini merupakan berasal dari latar belakang keluarga yang saleh dan taat terhadap agama hampir semua filsuf memiliki keluarga seperti tersebut salah satunya Spinoza. Keluarganya terutama sang Ayah menghendaki Hume untuk mendalami Ilmu hukum dan menjadi ahli hukum, tetapi Hume tidak tertarik dengan bidang hukum, karena Hume lebih senang dengan filsafat dan memiliki cita-cita sebagai seorang pengajar. Meskipun tertarik dengan filsafat karir Hume tidak semulus yang dibayangkan, hal ini terlihat Hume gagal dalam salah satu test untuk menjadi dosen di salah satu univesrsitas.

Sampai akhir hayatnya Hume tidak bisa menggapai cita-citanya sebagai pengajar, tetapi hal tersebut tidak membuat pemikiran Hume tenggelam oleh tokoh tokoh sesudahnya. Pemikiran Hume juga memiliki andil besar pada saat ini, khususnya dalam penelitian scientific yang menekankan empirisme. There are no discussion topics on this book yet. In light of Hume's central role in the Scottish Enlightenment, and in the history of Western philosophy, Bryan Magee judged him as a philosopher "widely regarded as the greatest who has ever written in the English language.


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    5. He wrote The History of England which became a bestseller, and it became the standard history of England in its day. His empirical approach places him with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others at the time as a British Empiricist. Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature , Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature. He also argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience.

    SparkNotes: David Hume (–): An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

    He argued that inductive reasoning and therefore causality cannot be justified rationally. Our assumptions in favour of these result from custom and constant conjunction rather than logic. He concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self. Hume's compatibilist theory of free will proved extremely influential on subsequent moral philosophy.

    He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles, and expounded the is—ought problem. Hume has proved extremely influential on subsequent western philosophy, especially on utilitarianism, logical positivism, William James, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive philosophy, theology and other movements and thinkers. In addition, according to philosopher Jerry Fodor, Hume's Treatise is "the founding document of cognitive science". Hume engaged with contemporary intellectual luminaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Boswell, and Adam Smith who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy.

    Immanuel Kant credited Hume with awakening him from "dogmatic slumbers". Books by David Hume. Trivia About An Enquiry Concer No trivia or quizzes yet. Quotes from An Enquiry Concer Render possessions ever so equal, men's different degrees of art, care, and industry will immediately break that equality. Or if you check these virtues, you reduce society to the most extreme indigence; and instead of preventing want and beggary in a few, render it unavoidable to the whole community. The most rigorous inquisition too is requisite to watch every inequality on its first appearance; and the most severe jurisdiction, to punish and redress it.

    But besides, that so much authority must soon degenerate into tyranny, and be exerted with great partialities; who can possibly be possessed of it, in such a situation as is here supposed?

    An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

    Perfect equality of possessions, destroying all subordination, weakens extremely the authority of magistracy, and must reduce all power nearly to a level, as well as property. We may conclude, therefore, that in order to establish laws for the regulation of property, we must be acquainted with the nature and situation of man; must reject appearances, which may be false, though specious; and must search for those rules, which are, on the whole, most useful and beneficial. The same blind adherence to their own arguments is to be expected in both; the same contempt of their antagonists; and the same passionate vehemence, in enforcing sophistry and falsehood.

    He notes that artificial virtues vary from society to society. Natural virtues, on the other hand, originate in nature and are more universal. They include compassion, generosity, gratitude, friendship, fidelity, charity, beneficence, clemency, equity, prudence, temperance, frugality, industry, courage, ambition, pride, modesty, self-assertiveness, good sense, wit and humor, perseverance, patience, parental devotion, good nature, cleanliness, articulateness, sensitivity to poetry, decorum, and an elusive quality that makes a person lovely or valuable.

    From the SparkNotes Blog

    Some of these virtues are voluntary, such as pride, while others are involuntary, such as good sense. As in the Treatise , Hume explains that reason does not cause our actions. Instead, moral sentiments, or passions, motivate us to act. In the Enquiry , however, Hume goes further to state that our actions are caused by a combination of utility and sentiment.