The Content And Enlightenment Of Hume's Moral Philosophy

David Hume,a famous philosopher and ethicist,was also known as a great expert in Experience in the eighteenth century Britain.His thought plays an important role in the western philosophic history and has produced great influence on subsequent thinkers.By analyzing Hume's moral philosophy,this paper aims at getting enlightment for our country's moral education in schools and citizens' moral building framed.Hume's moral philosophy consists of foundational theory of morality,virtue ethics,theory of moral sentiments and consumption moral thought.His foundational theory of morality embodies the following aspects:1.Morality origins from the primitive sense of joy and pain,which is the base of Hume's moral philosophy.2.The criteria of moral judgments are helpfulness and entertainment. Inherent morality of kind-heartedness and acquired morality of justice are the main idea in Hume's two virtue morality.Three bases(selfishness,concepts and unselfishness,and sympathy in human nature) of sentiments and the principles for its happening are the major contents of his virtue ethics------link between concepts provides conditions for the happening of sentiments,selfishness and limited generosity have determined the double tendencies of both selfishness and unselfishness, and the principle of sympathy is the base of Hume's theory of moral sentiments.The essence of Hume's consumption morality lies in the argument of moderate consumption that conforms to human nature and strangles voracious desires,and of taking the pursuit of the maximum happiness in life as the ultimate goal of consumption.The above arguments together form Hume's moral philosophy.The confirmation of selfishness restores the original appearance of human beings,and challenges China's traditional moral conceptions of "unselfishness".In the work of moral education in schools,nothing but to focus on the intrinsic quality of human beings and act with the innate human nature presents real moral education.Kind-heartedness is universal and without consideration of individual gains and losses;the availability of justice can safeguard social peace and stability,and promote human existence and development.The idea of virtue ethics can be used as a significant reference for China's current economic construction.Hume's thought of moderate consumption provides university students in China instruction both theoretically and practically on building up correct consumption concepts and forming good consumption moral habits.