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Motivating Hume’s natural virtues

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2020

Philip A. Reed
Philip A. Reed*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Canisius College, 2001 Main St, Buffalo, NY, 14208, USA
*
*Email: reedp@canisius.edu
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Abstract

Many commentators propose that Hume thinks that we are not or should not be motivated to perform naturally virtuous actions from moral sentiments. I take issue with this interpretation in this paper, arguing that Hume fully incorporates the moral sentiments into his understanding of how human beings act when it comes to the natural virtues and that he does not see the moral sentiments as a problematic kind of motivation that threatens or weakens the virtuous status of the action.

Keywords

Humenatural virtuesmoral sentimentsmoral motivation
Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Philosophy , Volume 42 , Issue S1: Hume in Alberta: Selected Papers from the 2012 Hume Conference in Calgary , February 2012 , pp. 134 - 147
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2012

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