David Hume Rationalism Essay

Hume believed that all morality was the product of habit or custom. He also claimed that it was our sentiments that was influencing human moral and actions. We use these sentiments, or feelings, to find a conjunction between the motive, not the reason, behind an action and actually performing the action itself. Hume believed that our sentiments had the power to result in specific actions. At a certain point, this means we are predetermined to act as we do. These sentiments control our actions to the degree of casual need, or the habitual expectation that what happen today will happen again the next day and so on unless given reason to believe otherwise.
Hume was not a rationalist, therefore, rationality served no purpose in his account of
Traditional morality is not, of course, derived from reason, but rather a moral sense. Hume defines virtue as a straightforward matter of fact which can be discovered through experience. Virtue is also always accompanied with hedonism, or a sense of pleasure or pain from an action. Therefore, we praise a virtuous action since it causes us a feeling of pleasure and we avoid things such as vices since they produce a negative (painful) feeling or at least we anticipate it to do so. Hume believed that this provided a natural guide (inclinations) for us in terms of moral conduct. He also mentions ideas of utility, benevolence, and justice awaken deep, persuasive sentiments within us that in turn motivate us in terms of moral worth. We give assistance to people in need because we feel good in return and we remain fair when dealing with others because we’d feel bad to do so otherwise. Overall, Hume believed we did things based off self-interest. He said we do these action because of four sanctions: physical, political, moral, and religious. Our motivations are driven by social, semi-social, dissocial, or self-regarding reasons, which often end a “moral” act, but then there’s the issue of if the end really justifies the means. If you’re not doing an act for the right reasons then it’s likely the act itself isn’t