David Hume The Origin Of Morality Essay

Morality is the standard by which we approve or disapprove of human behavior. While it can subjectively change from culture to culture, there are many common global principals for morality. Murder is generally frowned upon. Child poverty is for the most part looked down upon. Theft is globally unacceptable. This has been the case for millennia. Not all of the Earth’s civilizations had contact and yet many of them set up laws to ensure similar moral standards were upheld. In this essay I will discuss Hume’s view of the origin of morality and how we as a diverse species were able to create such similar standards of something as intangible as morality.
Morality is a uniquely human characteristic. As it is something we have created but cannot touch. We can assume it is housed in the inner workings of our mind. Morality moves us to action, but we must first determine its origin. The mind has the
Hume believes the root of morality is emotion. He believes emotions, or passions, as he calls them, are the driving force behind our actions. Hume believes that how we feel about things determines what we determine is moral or immoral. There is no logical reason for keeping one’s promises if there is no benefit to you. However, we as a people have decided that keeping one’s word is moral because we would like someone to do that for us. We keep our promises because we want people to think kindly of us. There is no logic behind it, but there is emotion. Even when there is nothing to be gained for us by keeping our promises, we still maintain its moral to keep them because of how it makes us feel. This means, even when it is illogical to do something, if we feel it is moral, we should do it. Reason is not enough to change how we behave. It can give us some direction but it cannot compel us to do