On Hume's Sympathy Mechanism From The Perspective Of Contemporary Moral Psychology

Most doctrines before Hume thought that men are virtuous only to the extent that they conform themselves to reason's dictates,thus establishing morality on reason.Instead,in Book III of his Treatise of Human Nature Hume thinks that original motive for the establishment of a system of justice is self-interest,but what attaches moral approval to justice is sympathy with the public interest.In this way,Hume regard self-interest and sympathy as foundation of morality.However,Hume's sympathy is not so pure that it contains empathy and concern which is clearly distinguished from each other in modern moral psychology.Although syntactically texts show that Hume sometimes separate concern from sympathy,in most cases he unconsciously combines them together.In modern moral psychology,empathy catches emotions from others while concern instructs us to want for someone for his sake,which itself neither conceptually nor metaphysically belongs to empathy.Studies nowadays not only summarize five modes of empathy from lower to higher level,but also suggest new ways to deliver emotions.Hume's theory faces challenges and criticisms.In this article,I argue that Hume's sympathy cooperates with another principle-self-interest.Since in Hume's theory the practical motivation consists in the concern for oneself thus cannot jump out of the circle of himself,it is necessary to appeal to sympathy to make someone else's situation into my situation to promote myself to make a judgment about others,insofar as moral judgments must be universal rather than a personal opinion.In Hume's system,"the concern for himself ' conceptually belongs to oneself and can independent from sympathy.Therefore,the charge of mixing empathy with concern is not so forceful for Hume.