David Hume Flashcards
What are philosophers often categorized as?
Makers or breakers
Makers
contribute to new ideas on how to set up the world or a new society
Breakers
critical of existing philosophers trying to improve
What is Hume most famous for?
being an outstanding critical philosopher
What does Hume set himself up to be?
“steal man”
Who does Hume befriend?
Jean Jacques Rousseau
What book has royalties that will set him up for the rest of his life as a public intellectual?
History of England
What kind of era was he writing in?
major scientific advances were being made
What did Hume want to do?
understand the human mind the way Newton understood the physical world
What does his book Treatise of Human Nature attempt?
understand human mind
what is believed to set humans apart?
rationality
Do we make decisions based on feelings or rationality?
feelings
What does Hume believe reason to be?
“slave of passions”
what are moral distinctions derived from?
moral sentiments
feelings of approval or disapproval felt by spectators who contemplate a character trait or action
what was a large criticism on Descarte’s belief?
convictions to reason
NOT reason to convictions
used to define his criticisms of social contract theory
Why shouldn’t you base morals on rational thought?
passions outweigh reason
What would advocates of natural law say?
eternal truths are as apparent at 2+2=4
Hume disagrees
What proof does he use to demonstrate that eternal truths aren’t apparent?
Parricide is not the same for humans as it is for trees
subjective morality determines its wrongness
What idea does Hume acknowledge that we’ve talked about before?
Instrumental rationality
What does reason serve as?
a means to an end but cannot determine what the end is
What determines what the end is?
passion
What can reason tell you?
how to reach an end but not how to care about it
Who’s statement of the social contract theory does Hume criticize?
Locke
What does Hume not dispute?
necessity for government
What does Hume note about the social contract theory?
no societies were actually formed
What is history littered with?
examples of societies starting via force (like machiavelli advocates)
what is the legitimacy of regime based on?
custom or habit
what does it mean with people being born into political societies?
they aren’t actually granting their consent to join
What does Locke think that Hume disagrees with?
takes care of people and consent via tacit consent
what does Hume say is needed for social contract theory to work?
voluntary consent - in reality the only consent given is the act of staying in the country
is the standard by which you no longer need to obey the government the violation of a contract or violating common sense?
violating common sense
they say he may say he supports the necessity of government but what does his criticisms of the social contract imply?
the world we live in should just be a free for all
does Hume set out to destroy or strengthen social contract theory?
strengthen it by making the argument more defensible
what does Hume believe
government is necessary and in the interest of all involved
what does Hume say would happen without rules?
we would descend into chaos
what can his general skepticism be used as
to justify the status quo
how does he view institutions
stable and unoppressive so he wants to tamp down arguments to change it
what does Hume refer to justice as?
“artificial virtue”
reason
may not get you to care about justice, but it can tell you how to achieve justice
how is justice determined?
a set of rules that are based on the idea that people tried living without them and couldn’t
justice set of rules
rules of property
rules of transferring property
rules or promising
