Philosophy · Medieval & Early Modern Philosophy
A topic within Medieval & Early Modern Philosophy, itself one of 12 topics in that field and part of Philosophy.
Assumes you know the vocabulary.
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
David Hume · 1751
Hume's own preferred statement of his ethics, arguing that what we call virtue is simply whatever traits we find agreeable or useful to ourselves and…
Primary sources and full treatments.
A Treatise of Human Nature
David Hume · 1739
Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and Hume traces belief, causation and the self themselves not to reason but to custom and…
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3 works
David Hume
Hume's own preferred statement of his ethics, arguing that what we call virtue is simply whatever traits we find agreeable or useful to ourselves and others, with sentiment rather than reason as the ultimate basis of moral judgement.
about 3 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026David Hume
Reason is and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and Hume traces belief, causation and the self themselves not to reason but to custom and feeling, in what he later called his youthful work that 'fell dead-born from the press'.
about 15 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026David Hume
Three characters debate whether the order of nature proves a designing God, and Hume has the sceptic Philo dismantle the argument from design point by point, in a book left unpublished until three years after his own death because of how it would be received.
about 2.5 hours to readlink checked 17 Sept 2026