An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding An Enquiry Concerning The Principles Of Morals And The Natural History Of Religion

Enquiry concerning the principles of morals / Hume, David, 1711-1776.

Examines each section of Hume's second Enquiry in detail and considers its place within Hume's philosophy as a whole.

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David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals argues that morals are not based in rational thought, but rather are sentimental endeavors. This text highlights how approval and disapproval can be used to make moral judgments, and how this might elevate certain aspects of society. Hume's book delves into the human psyche and, therefore, aids our understanding of society and life as a whole.

Sympathy, we shall allow, is much fainter than our concern for ourselves, and sympathy with persons remote from us much fainter than that with persons near and contiguous; but for this very reason it is necessary for us, in our calm judgments and discourse concerning the characters of men, to neglect all these differences and render our sentiments more public and social.-from "Why Utility Pleases"David Hume may well be the most significant philosopher ever to write in the English language: his arguments dramatically influenced both scientific and religious thinking, and much of what he wrote-particular concerning free will, political theory, and religion-still sounds startlingly modern. Hume himself called this "incomparably the best" of all his many writings. First published in 1751, it is an astonishing consideration of source and value of the feelings, thoughts, and actions we call "morality," and it is required reading for anyone who calls himself educated.AUTHOR BIO: Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist DAVID HUME (1711-1776) also wrote A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740) and Enquiry's Concerning Human Understanding (1748).

An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, first published in 1751, was the third of David Hume's major philosophical treatises. Hume's aim in this elegant and lucid work was to present in an accessible way his theory of the foundation of morality in human nature, a theory which had developed significantly since he first addressed the subject in A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40). He considered this Enquiry to be 'of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best'.