Exciting and Justifying Reasons

Abstract

It is with Hume’s arguments for the claim that “the rules of morality are not conclusions of our reason” that this chapter deals. We have already considered the support Hume offers for the contention that “reason, by itself, does not excite passions and produce or prevent actions.” I tried to show that Hume failed to establish this point. In this chapter we will be concerned with the first premise of Hume’s argument, namely, “moral judgments, rules, and precepts excite passions and produce or prevent actions.” It is only when this premise is understood that we come to understand how it is that Hume was led to hold the position that we cannot distinguish right from wrong or good from bad by means of reason.