Most individuals generally like to think of themselves as moral human beings. They often directly link their moral judgments to reason alone. However, in the 18th century, Hume made the suggestion that moral judgments could be based on emotions rather than unadulterated reason. In his Moral Philosophy, Hume argues that moral distinctions are not derived from reason, but rather determined by moral emotions: feelings of approval, or disgust felt by spectators who contemplate a moral trait or action (Owen, 1992). Moral judgments find their foundation in an assessment of actions of people with respect to the set of merits ingrained in their society (Haidt, 2001).…
Waste consumption in the United States has been a really big problem of this century and our waste habits are even a bigger problem. The book of Garbology, written by Edward Humes, uncovers the habits of Americans. Humes writes about a woman in chapter 11 named Bea Johnson who is an advocate for not producing trash. Humes states she has been producing no more than a size of a glass a year on waste. Johnson has also been finding ways how to produce less trash and she came to the conclusion if there was less trash being produced the happier her family was.…
How many problems lurk behind our daily rituals and second nature behaviors? Edward Humes’ Garbology certainly has opened my eyes to a lot of issues that I was imperceptive to. Hume’s unveils the truth about how we as Americans live as serial wasters. We purchase heaps of items a year that we don’t keep long enough. Almost everything that we bring into our homes is over packaged, and it seems that with every generation a bizarre obsession with all things plastic flourishes.…
In David Hume’s an Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, Hume explains the connection and distinction between impressions and ideas. Impressions are our perceptions of our senses; “hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will” (539). Ideas are our perceptions that reflect on those sensations. One big difference between ideas and impressions is that ideas can be things that do not exist, like unicorn or space aliens (539). He states in his Principle of Empiricism that for every idea there is a corresponding impressions and simpler ideas.…
1. Last semester I took an Applied Ethics class and one of the philosophers we discussed was Peter Singer who is a utilitarian who believes in maximizing good and minimize harm and suffering. While Singer holds no firm religious belief in his adult life, he understands not all evil can be prevented but as humans we can do our part by at least minimizing it. His theory is, if you see a child drowning in a pond you should save the child. Like Singer, David Hume struggled with the idea of God existing since there is pain and suffering.…
For my profile of an economist I will present on David Hume. The format of this presentation will be Power Point. Hume was part of the Scottish Enlightenment and lived from 1711-1776. Hume strongly opposed mercantilism and advocated for free trade.…
The main message of “The Quandry” is about faith and our inability as humans to prove one way or the other if we are more than just a complex assembly of body parts, or are endowed with a soul that defies physical proof. In the story, two sisters, Melissa and Melinda are given the task of deciding their brother’s fate after he is involved in a traumatic motorcycle accident which has irreparably damaged his brain. After visiting their brother in the hospital and getting the news of his living will’s instructions giving them power of attorney to decide whether or not to keep him on life support .The two sisters spend time immersing themselves in different philosophical works at Matthew’s house while trying to come to a mutual decision. Melissa’s opinion is that all that made Matthew who he was is gone due to the severe head trauma.…
The image of “heaven” stems from the speaker’s own personal…
David Hume was one of the most influential philosophers of his time and continues to be mentioned and studies to this day. Almost equally as impressive was the response that philosopher Immanuel Kant had to his Inquiry of Human Understanding. Kant attempted to respond to Hume’s ideas and in this essay, I will identify the Hume’s beliefs behind the concepts such as cause, and effect and I will later defend Kant’s response to Hume. He raises points that leave his reader with a deeper understanding of his concept and explicitly outlines his beliefs on the concepts that Hume covers in his Human Inquiry.…
Hume vs Locke What is personal identity? What is the “self”? There is a great debate that surrounds this subject in philosophy. So, which philosopher has the right idea? Is it David Hume with his theory of impressions?…
David Hume once said, “ Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions.” He wrote this in his book Treatise on Human Nature. Hume was obsessed with learning about how people obtain knowledge. The answer is quite simple, through experience. We all entered this world as an infant; we had to learn what behavior was expected of us and what we were expected to give in return all through experience.…
Causality is the structure of cause and effect, the relationship completely. For A must come before B, A being the cause and B the effect. This is one of the necessary conditions that need to be met, for causation to be applicable. At least three, need to be met altogether, such as temporal priority over cause and effect, and continuity. These conditions also have to happen at the same time, or it is not credible.…
When attempting to solve the problem concerning the immortality of the soul, both Plato and Hume must rely on analogy. Plato, being a rationalist, argues that the soul is immortal and is comparable to a form, for it is invisible and incomposite, unlike material objects. Hume, on the other hand, believes that the soul is mortal and compares souls to perishable objects such as bodies. Although neither analogy can offer any validity, Hume 's argument for the mortality of the soul is far more compelling than Plato 's opposing argument.…