Morals, Motivation, and Convention
Hume's Influential Doctrines

This 1991 book is about the continuing influence of Hume's ideas on moral and political philosophy.

Francis Snare (Author)

9780521892711, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 20 June 2002

340 pages
21.7 x 13.9 x 1.9 cm, 0.452 kg

"...there is substantial contemporary interest in the Humean doctrines and arguments which Snare scrupulously lays out and criticizes. Many people have discussed these themes in various ways, but I don't know of a clearer, more careful, and sounder treatment of them than Snare's." Stephen Darwall, University of Michigan

This 1991 book is about the continuing influence of Hume's ideas on moral and political philosophy. In part, it is a critical exegesis of Hume's most impressive and challenging doctrines in Book III of the Treatise of Human Nature on such topics as morals, motivation, justice, and social institutions. However, the main thrust of the argument is to throw into relief the importance of that discussion for contemporary philosophy. While the author subjects most contemporary defences of Humean doctrines to intense criticism, he also seeks to discover what versions of Hume's theories might still be defensible and viable.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. The Argument for Sentimentalism: 1. A systematic ambiguity
2. The influence argument
3. Some bad reasons for believing the first premiss
4. The Humean theory of motivating reasons
5. The provocative Humean theory of motivation
Part II. The Problems and Consequences of Sentimentalism: 6. Continuity and circularity
7. The problem with justice
8. The conservative theory of justice
9. Convention and institutional facts
10. Convention and the regard to justice
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Western philosophy: c 1600 to c 1900 [HPCD]