Hume, Reason & Morality

A Legacy of Contradiction

Covering an important theme in Humean studies, this book focuses on Hume’s hugely influential attempt in book three of his Treatise of Human Nature to derive the conclusion that morality is a matter of feeling, not reason, from its link with action. It claims that this argument contains a fundamental contradiction that has gone unnoticed in modern debate. It combines historical-scholarly work and contemporary analysis that seeks to expose this contradiction and therefore provide a contribution to current scholarship in this area.

Beginning by pointing out that a contradiction concerning whether reason can influence action, or is wholly powerless, occurs in the intermediary premiss, it moves on to draw out the consequences for recent meta-ethics of the failure to acknowledge this contradiction. Finally, highlighting the root of the argument’s power in an article of naturalistic dogma, the book suggests how it may be possible to restore to our moral concepts their traditional and integral link with both truth and motivation.

The ideal readership would include moral philosophers interested in meta-ethics and practical reason, and Humean scholars.

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Part 1: Hume’s Practicality Argument
Introduction
1. A Contradiction, not an Ambiguity
2. Validity and the ‘Moderate’ Version
3. Metaphysics and the ‘Extreme’ Version
4. Sentimentalists, Secondary Qualities and Sensations
5. The Inconsolable Sceptic

Part 2: The Practicality Argument Today
6. Morality’s Dynamism
7. Desires, Beliefs and ‘Direction of Fit’
8. A Riddle and a Buried Assumption
9. The Case of Owen Wingrave

Reviews of Hume, Reason & Morality

"In this excellent book, Botros aims to show, first, that it is not at all clear what exactly [Hume's] argument is supposed to be, and second, that whatever it is, it is unsuccessful". [This is] "the most serious and detailed attempt to come to grips with Hume's notorious argument that I know of...A significant contribution to our understanding."

Jonathan Dancy, The Times Literary Supplement, February 9th 2007

Sophie Botros

Sophie Botros has a B.A. in Philosophy with First Class Honours (Birkbeck College, London) and a Ph.D “Freedom of the Will” (King’s College, London, where she was supervised by Professor Peter Winch). She has held lecturing posts in the philosophy departments of the University of Essex, and of Stirling. She was Lecturer in Medical Ethics, Centre of Medical Law and Ethics, King’s College, London from 1987-1995 where she established a Public Affairs Unit, and organized, and chaired, meetings in the Houses of Commons and Lords, during the passage of the Human Fertilization and Embryology Bill through Parliament.

Dr Botros’s newest book Truth, Time and History: a Philosophical Inquiry was published by Bloomsbury Academic on 21st September 2017.

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Sophie Botros

Hume, Reason & Morality

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Sophie Botros

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