Preston Werner on Nostr: Everyone in ethics and metaethics knows this quote from Hume: “Reason Is and Ought ...
Everyone in ethics and metaethics knows this quote from Hume:
“Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions”
It's always given as a statement of a Humean theory of motivation - beliefs alone can't motivate, only once coupled with desires.
But do Hume scholars (or ethicists) ever give an explanation of the "ought only to be" part of the quote? It is very curious and seemingly incompatible with the Humean theory of motivation: Why make an ought claim about an action-type which literally can't be violated?
#philosophy #academicchatter #ethics #metaethics
“Reason Is and Ought Only to Be the Slave of the Passions”
It's always given as a statement of a Humean theory of motivation - beliefs alone can't motivate, only once coupled with desires.
But do Hume scholars (or ethicists) ever give an explanation of the "ought only to be" part of the quote? It is very curious and seemingly incompatible with the Humean theory of motivation: Why make an ought claim about an action-type which literally can't be violated?
#philosophy #academicchatter #ethics #metaethics