Transcript Moral motivation as natural disposition

Moral motivation as
natural disposition
Michael Lacewing
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© Michael Lacewing
Hume
• The foundation of morality is a feeling of
approval/disapproval
– ‘That which pronounces characters praiseworthy
or blameable depends on some internal sense or
feeling, which nature has made universal in the
whole species’
• Praise of a person always attaches to
happiness and satisfaction society receives
from his presence and actions (utility)
Why are we pleased by
utility?
• Approval is not based on self-interest
– we approve of things that seem to have nothing
to do with our interests – and a real feeling can’t
arise from an imaginary interest;
– we can distinguish affection for virtue and
private advantage – and can respect it in
enemies;
– we try to persuade others without referring to
their self-interest
Sympathy
• Approval is based on sympathy
• We are clearly moved by effects of
misery; can we be indifferent to its
causes? And likewise with happiness
• From sympathy with those affected by
the action, we approve or disapprove
of its motive
Sympathy and self-interest
• But can sympathy overcome self-interest?
• There is no fundamental conflict:
– ‘Are we apprehensive lest those social affections
interfere… with private utility, and cannot be
gratified, without some important sacrifice of
honour and advantage? If so, we are but illinstructed in the nature of the human passions,
and are more influenced by verbal distinctions
than by real differences.’(Enquiry, 230)
Can morality be based on
sympathy?
• Sympathy is stronger for those we
know and love, but moral judgment
treats everyone as equal
• Hume agrees; to generate moral
judgments, we must render our
feelings ‘more public and social’
• This can involve reasoning
Moral authority
• Can sympathy explain our saying ‘you
must do this’? Can’t someone simply
reply that they don’t care about
sympathy?
• Yes - we can’t argue someone into
being moral
• But anyone completely without
sympathy is a sociopath
Morality beyond sympathy
• According to Hume, we approve of
what is pleasurable and useful, and
disapprove of what is not
• But what about ideas of self-denial,
self-sacrifice and penitence?
– Hume rejects them