The Scottish philosopher, David Hume (1711-1776), wrote a major work he titled “Treatise of Human Nature.” In it, he sought to reduce morality to a few laws upon which other observations could be made, much as Newton had done with physics. Hume’s primary thesis is principles of morality are subject to, or based upon, feeling and sentiment, not pure reason. He argued that it is the prospect of pleasure or pain that causes us to act and that reason can only inform us as to the morality of the means by which we secure those ends. He claimed, “Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions.” This resulted in two major ideas that influenced philosophy thereafter. First, that reason was in fact subordinate to emotion. And second, our moral judgments are derived from our passions and not from our reason.
Pojman, Louis P. Ethical Value Theory: Classic and Contemporary Readings, Fourth Edition, (Wadsworth International: 2002), 405 – 406.
Put another way, do you ever reason that something is right and then act upon it, even though it FEELS wrong? Hume would say it is not possible to act against your feelings even though you've determined something to be morally right or wrong by reason. I believe we are capable of acting against our feelings. For instance, I doubt the firefighters of 9/11 who had young children FELT like rescuing complete strangers instead of securing their family. However, they reasoned they had a moral obligation to fulfill their duty to their chosen profession and to the lives of those they committed to save when they entered that profession.
I agree that humans base judgement on emotion, not only moral judgement. However, In my opinion, doing cruel acts, whether made from immoral judgement or emotion, is equally wrong.
ReplyDelete1. Was Hume not during the Enlightenment? Rebel...
ReplyDelete2. I am somewhat confused. I believe that reason perpetrated by humans is inherently flawed because as evolutionary beings, we are ruled by emotion. BUT, I do believe that reason in its entirety is a possible concept, but can only be achieved by an extra-human means.
One area where reason has prevailed is mathematics. In math, reason is limited to quantitative concepts. Since it is limited, there is less room for human error.
I agree. Morality is primely composed of how the individual reacts to a certain action. Reason /does/ assist us to a certain extent, but doesn't always have as much effect as our personal views.
ReplyDeleteSometimes people do things impulsively, even if they aren't right, but feel good. But sometimes people do things that feel wrong but are the right thing to do. I think that we mostly act off of our emotions, but sometimes people have to think about others, before they think about how they feel.
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