The Sense of Morality in David Hume’s Ethics

Abstract

Hume was among those first Modern philosophers, who brought into discourse the general notion of morality, the idea of which is featured in Hume’s ethics by the following: a) morality is a sphere of decisions, efforts, and judgments, oriented towards common interests and common good; b) the agent’s autonomy is not significant; c) morality is found in the sphere of human interaction and directs the latter to establishment and maintenance of peacefulness; d) morality is dual by nature, what is discovered either in divergence of natural and artificial virtues, or in the character of moral obligations, which express the necessity, on the one hand, to promote others’ good determined by comprehension given by sympathy that others may suffer because of the lack of the good and, on the other hand, to fulfill the agreements, which are considered as inherently significant; e) moral relations are the relations of partnership, reciprocity, and mutual benevolent disposition; Hume pays main attention to the actions undertaken in expectation of others’ reciprocity, e. g. initiative actions for the sake of others’ good, rather than to actions reactive actions reciprocal to others’ good deeds.

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