Human Nature And Morality: Study On Hume’s Moral Philosophy From The Perspective Of Human Nature

As a moral philosopher in the eighteenth century, David Hume and otherphilosophers were faced with a tough but urgent issue–––to provide defense forthe correctness and rationality of moral norms by seeking new moral basis. Thisdissertation based on Hume’s moral thoughts is an attempt to probe into thefollowing three aspects. In the first part, the author points out emphatically theinner link between consciousness, impression and concept during cognitiveactivity, apart from reviewing Hume’s theory of human nature, epistemology, andmorality. The focus is also on the deductive problem on Hume’s assumption ofcausality, which leads to the origin of Hume’s moral thoughts of epistemology.The second part is the statement of the fundamental principle of Hume’s moralphilosophy. Hume builds his moral principles system on the basis of happinessprinciple, social utility, and moral emotion. This part emphasizes the logicalrelation between “is” and “ought” as well as the categories of morality. The thirdpart is the analysis of Hume’s moral philosophy’s profound effects on the latermoral philosophy. The author demonstrates that Hume’s moral philosophy lays afoundation for Mill’s and Bentham’ utilitarian moral thoughts and Kant’srationalistic moral thoughts and then elaborates Hume’s moral philosophy hasgreat value in contemporary moral philosophy development.Hume’s human nature consists of two basic dimensions. One is reason orintellectuality, and the other is emotion or morality. He inspects cognitive abilityand practical ability respectively on the two dimensions. The former constitutesepistemology, and the latter morality. Then the two theories are united in histheory of human nature.“There is an inner-relation of Hume’s theory of humannature and theory of knowledge, because his ‘Of the Understanding’ reveals human nature.” The theory of intellectuality is also “the starting point of Hume’smorality explaining human behavior. The ideas of epistemology not only lay thehumanistic foundation for moral judgment but also provide the foundation forexplaining the reason why one’s trait, character and behavior is respected,impressed and praised or resented, criticized or satirized.” Therefore, theepistemology provides methodological premise and sets fundamental directionfor morality. Hume’s moral thoughts are not only a kind of criticism of traditionalrationalism from the times of ancient Greece but also a kind of inheritance anddevelopment. He discarded the moral sense on the basis of one’s reason andinsists on the basis of one’s feelings and experiences. In his eyes, reason has tosubmit to one’s true feelings and experiences. The metaphysical rationaljudgments without experiences can hardly become moral criteria.Human nature is the top priority in Hume’s philosophy system. He devotesall his life to the study of human nature, which is considered to be the basis fornew philosophy system. He has ever states clearly in his philosophy system thatscience of man is the “only solid foundation for the other sciences,” and that “allthe sciences have a relation, more or less, to human nature. No matter how farthey are away from human nature, each science is in some measure dependent onhuman nature.” Therefore, according to Hume, the key to solving any importantissues lies in mastering the human nature or not which becomes the core inHume’s moral philosophy. Hume develops ample statements about suchimportant issues as moral formation methodology, moral foundation and originon the basis of human nature.Undoubtedly, since Hume’s moral philosophy is empirical, it pays attentionto human’s psychology and sentiment. Hence, the sentiment is not only the entrypoint to moral philosophy but also human’s moral basis. However, this moralorientation seems to be well justified, and it stems from a long ethical dispute inEnglish ethics community. Hobbes, the campaigner of the dispute, supportsselfish theory of human nature. He believes that one’s self-preservation is the basis of ethical conduct, which launches the dispute about human nature andmorality. During the dispute, Shaftesbury and Hutcheson from sentimental camphave a profound impact on Hume. Shaftesbury proposes moral sense firstly andfounds sentimental ethics. Hutcheson inherits and develops the concept of moralsense and systematically states what moral sense is for the first time. If bothShaftesbury and Hutcheson put forward their ideas on the basis of criticizingrationalistic morality, Hume oversets, according to his complete empiricism, theirthoughts and emphasizes sentimentalism over rationalism.Hume’s ideas of emotion over reason have an impact on sentimentalism andutilitarianism and bring effects on Kant’s moral philosophy. Firstly, sentimentalmorality inherits Hume’s “emotion” basis and views it as the origin of moraloccurrence and standard of moral judgment. Furthermore, as the ultimate goal ofmorality, the idea directly aims at the area of moral practical occurrence.Secondly, utilitarian morality inherits Hume’s utility norms and builds moralityon the basis of objective utility, which highlights the objectivity of the standardof moral judgment. Finally, Kant proposes opposite opinion in view of Hume’sthoughts of emotion over reason. He emphasizes the basic position of rationalmoral norms on which he builds his own morality system. Contemporary studieson morality also respond to some Hume’s moral philosophy issues to varyingdegrees such as “is and ought”,“causal necessity” and “which is the basis,emotion or reason?”...