And as a supplementary incentive, notice that by dissolving and relocating the moral ‘ought’ in this way, Hume has solved the second key question about morality: “Now that I know how I morally ought to behave, what reason do I have to behave as I morally ought to behave? Hume’s answer: “Because ‘moral ought’ is just a special case of ‘practical ought’.
Despite being a fellow-traveler in these areas, I had no idea Hume actually laid out all these pieces. I’ll have to go read some more Hume. I tend to defend it as straightforward application of Sidgwick’s definition of ethics coupled with the actual English meaning of ‘should’, but clearly a good argument preceding that by a century or two would be even better.
And, indeed, to drop all figurative expression, what hopes can we ever have of engaging mankind to a practice, which we confess full of austerity and rigour? Or what theory of morals can ever serve any useful purpose, unless it can show, by a particular detail, that all the duties, which it recommends, are also the true interest of each individual? The peculiar advantage of the foregoing system seems to be, that it furnishes proper mediums for that purpose.
Despite being a fellow-traveler in these areas, I had no idea Hume actually laid out all these pieces. I’ll have to go read some more Hume. I tend to defend it as straightforward application of Sidgwick’s definition of ethics coupled with the actual English meaning of ‘should’, but clearly a good argument preceding that by a century or two would be even better.
Try this