Analysis of Suicide by David Hume

694 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Reflection about the subject personal development

Hume on Suicide

ONE considerable advantage that arises from Philosophy, consists in the sovereign antidote which it affords to superstition and false religion. All other remedies against that pestilent distemper are vain, or at least uncertain. Plain good sense and the practice of the world, which alone serve most purposes of life, are here found ineffectual: History as well as daily experience furnish instances of men endowed with the {2} strongest capacity for business and affairs, who have all their lives crouched under slavery to the grossest superstition. Even gaiety and sweetness of temper, which infuse a balm into every other wound, afford no remedy to so virulent a poison; as we may particularly observe of the fair sex, who tho' commonly possest of their rich presents of nature, feel many of their joys blasted by this importunate intruder. But when found Philosophy has once gained possession of the mind, superstition is effectually excluded, and one may fairly affirm that her triumph over this enemy is more complete than over most of the vices and imperfections incident to human nature. Love or anger, ambition or avarice, have their root in the temper and affection, which the soundest reason is scarce ever able fully to correct, but superstition being founded on false opinion, must immediately vanish when true philosophy has inspired juster sentiments of superior powers. The contest is here more equal between the distemper and the medicine, {3} and nothing can hinder the latter from proving effectual but its being false and sophisticated.

IT will here be superfluous to magnify the merits of Philosophy by displaying the pernicious tendency of that vice of which it cures the human mind. ([editor's note] 1) The su...

... middle of paper ...

...e surrounding bodies, and the modifications and actions of these bodies are incessantly altered by the operation of all animals. Man is stopt by rivers in his passage over the surface of the earth; and rivers, when properly directed, lend their force to the motion of machines, which serve to the use of man. But tho' the provinces of the material and animal powers are not kept entirely separate, there results from thence no discord or disorder in the creation; on the contrary, from the mixture, union, and contrast of all the various powers of inanimate bodies and living creatures, arises that sympathy, harmony, {7} and proportion, which affords the surest argument of supreme wisdom. The providence of the Deity appears not immediately in any operation, but governs every thing by those general and immutable laws, which have been established from the beginning of time.

Show More
Related

  • The Invisible Man, by Ralph Ellison

    1411 Words  | 3 Pages

    Frost, S. E. Basic Teachings of the Great Philosophers: a Survey of Their Basic Ideas.

    Read More

  • Analysis And Revenge In Stainton's Four Elements Of Revenge

    1982 Words  | 4 Pages

    He is indispensably extorted in the heat of commencement, to take for cues as human nature strives, naught deprive of sense that it garners. It is somewhere in the bilateral of consciousness that he is subjected to and is at bay with the conscious thus, for delimits it the projections coming forth in inaction. The moulds it comes are dispensable- the thoughts, imagination, or time to action. So the ‘revenge’ is immense in heat and diminish in action, wherefore it trolls and trots the cycle in innuendo of heat and action- and that is the very prop of philosophy. For philosophy drapes round the attire of inner and outer currents of the fastidious meanings and come with forms, the apprehensions that they give about name some philosophy. It is candid to speak that the vacancy to be true, is like a black hole- a void petrifying nature to rumble into it, become an insider, or by an outsider moan the black of

    Read More

  • Ernst Mayr's One Long Argument - Creationism vs. Evolutionism

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    It has been the belief of man since the dawn of civilization that somehow he was created above all other creatures, and that life for him, existed outside of the natural world. The interesting perspective Mayr brings to the topic of man and God is that, man may not be so divine as to be able to stand outside the natural order of evolution. Yet despite anthropological evidence, such as fossils, the public has a difficulty in accepting that man and animal had a common ancestor: that man had to evolve to his present state. But in contrast many are not be so surprised to believe that animals underwent and still undergo a constant change.

    Read More

  • David Hume’s an Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hume was the first thinker to point out the implications of the "representative theory of perception." He had inherited this theory from both his rationalist and empiricist predecessors. According to this view, when one says that he/she perceives something such as an apple, what it actually means is that the one has in the mind a mental idea or image or impression. Such a datum is an internal, mental, subjective representation of something that I assume to be an external, physical, fact. But there are, at least, two difficulties inherent in ascribing any truth to such perceptions. If truth is understood as the adequacy between the image and the object, then it is impossible to infer that there is a true world of objects since the only evidence. From this fundamental point, human reason loses its contingency in moral issues and decision making, letting feelings come to the first place. Hume emphasises the utility of knowledge as opposed to its correctness and suggests that morality begins with feeling rather than thought. In this case, Hume also believes that sympathy plays an essential role in morality. Sympathy is a fundamental feature of the human nature, that motivates us to make decisions. Sympathy can be described as an attempt to find or see one’s own nature in another object. Hume states that it is the start for all other human feelings.

    Read More

  • Rationalism, By Titus Lucretius Carus

    1247 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lucretius’ account of his work invites the more enterprising atheists to become more informed and familiar with the patina of a respected tradition, blurring their ability to decipher between enlightenment and classical rationalism. In order for enlightenment rationalism to achieve its end, it must fundamentally transform not only the nature of philosophy itself, but also what we as humans understand as the good life.

    Read More

  • Exploring the Ontological Argument

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    Cowan, S. B., & Spiegel, J. S. (2009). The love of wisdom: a christian introduction to philosophy. Nashville, TN: B&H Academic.

    Read More

  • The Decisive Treatise: Averroes

    896 Words  | 2 Pages

    Even though Averroes’ assertion that philosophy is an obligation from all who study religion seems to support innovative ideas, closer analysis shows the opposite. Considering all the limits set upon the encouragement of producing personal opinions, the role of philosophy is practically redundant. Opinions are only accepted from scholars, and even then, when they are in line with what is considered to be “right”.

    Read More

  • The Evolution Of Spirituality

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    In this essay, I will be arguing about humanity’s spiritual evolution. For humanity to evolve spiritually, it must go from an inferior state to a superior state. First, I will defend my conclusion by stating my reasons to support my conclusion. I will defend them and expand as well as explain what I mean. Before going in depth of my claims, I will first clarify critical terminology such as “moral evil” and “natural evil”. Finally, I will touch on some oppositions regarding any of my claims.

    Read More

  • David Hume's Argument on Passion and Morality

    1149 Words  | 3 Pages

    Why is incest deplorable amongst humans, but not for dogs? What makes it acceptable for a man to kill a deer, but wrong if he kills another man? Why do these lines get drawn between humans and animals? David Hume has an answer to these questions. Though many philosophers, like Saint Augustine, argue that humans are morally different from animals because of their capability to reason, Hume states that it is passion and sentiment that determines morality. In his book, Treatise with Human Nature, Hume claims that vice and virtue stems from the pleasure or pain we, mankind, feel in response to an action not from the facts that we observe (Hume, 218). Hume uses logic to separate morality into a dichotomy of fact and value, making it clear that the only reasonable way to think of the ethics of morality is to understand that it is driven by passion, as opposed to reason (Angeles, 95). In this essay I will layout Hume's position on morality and defining ambiguous terms on the way. After Hume's argument is well established, I will then precede to illustrate why it is convincing and defend his thesis against some common objections.

    Read More

  • Does Aristotle’s Function Argument Offer a Convincing Account of the Human Good?

    1843 Words  | 4 Pages

    The identification of the soul parts as the contributors and main elements for the function of the most important human activity (reasoning), marks the inevitable psychological asset of Aristotle’s thinking; specifically, the classification of human virtues derives from the analysis of the soul’s types, attributing to human beings the ability of reasoning which distinguishes human beings from the rest of ‘natural bodies.’ Indeed, reason exists in two parts of the soul, namely the rational and the appetitive (desires or passions), and so it expresses within two different virtues, the moral and intellectual ones. Moral virtues satisfy the impulses of the appetitive part and the intellectual virtues hav...

    Read More

  • Philo Cleanthes

    1171 Words  | 3 Pages

    Second Paper “I shall briefly explain how I conceive of this matter. Look round the world: Contemplate the whole and every part of it: You will find it to be nothing but one great machine, subdivided into an infinite number of lesser machines, which again admit subdivisions, to a degree beyond what human senses and faculties can trace and explain. All these various machines, and even their most minute parts, are adjusted to each other with an accuracy, which ravishes into admiration all men, who have ever contemplated them. The curious adapting of means to ends, throughout all nature, resembles, though it much exceeds, the production of human contrivance; of human design, thought, wisdom, and intelligence. Since therefore the effects resemble each other, we are led to infer, by all the rules of analogy, that the causes also resemble; and that the author of nature is somewhat similar to the mind of man; though possessed of much larger faculties, proportioned to the grandeur of the work, which he has executed.

    Read More

  • Cartesian Dualism Analysis

    930 Words  | 2 Pages

    The discussion begins regarding animals as non-human machines, all of whose actions can be fully explained without the inference of a mind. Descartes declared, most human behavior, like that of animals, is susceptible to simple mechanistic explanation. Uniquely designed bodily regulations can be imitated by carefully designed machines (19). Thus, Descartes argued, it is only the general ability to adapt to widely varying circumstances—and, in particular, the capacity to respond creatively in the use of language—that provides a sure test for the presence of an immaterial soul associated with the normal human

    Read More

  • David Hume on Sentiments and Reason

    1553 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Appendix I., Concerning Moral Sentiment, David Hume looks to find a place in morality for reason, and sentiment. Through, five principles he ultimately concludes that reason has no place within the concept of morality, but rather is something that can only assist sentiment in matters concerning morality. And while reason can be true or false, those truths or falsities apply to facts, not to morality. He then argues morals are the direct result of sentiment, or the inner feeling within a human being. These sentiments are what intrinsically drive and thus create morality within a being. Sentiments such as beauty, revenge, pleasure, pain, create moral motivation, and action, and are immune to falsity and truth. They are the foundation for which morals are built, and exist themselves apart from any reasoning. Thesis: In moral motivation, the role of sentiment is to drive an intrinsically instilled presence within us to examine what we would deem a moral act or an immoral act, and act accordingly, and accurately upon the sentiments that apply. These sentiments may be assisted by reasons, but the reason alone does not drive us to do what we would feel necessary. They can only guide us towards the final result of moral motivation which (by now it’s painfully clear) is sentiment.

    Read More

  • David Hume´s Philosophy

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    David Hume was a Scottish philosopher known for his ideas of skepticism and empiricism. Hume strived to better develop John Locke’s idea of empiricism by using a scientific study of our own human nature. We cannot lean on common sense to exemplify human conduct without offering any clarification to the subject. In other words, Hume says that since human beings do, as a matter of fact, live and function in this world, observation of how humans do so is imminent. The primary goal of philosophy is simply to explain and justify the reasoning of why we believe what we do.

    Read More

  • Analysis of St. Agustine´s View on the Existence of God

    1029 Words  | 3 Pages

    St. Augustine explained the existence of God by developing a comparison of nature’s animate or inanimate forms. He explains that animals and human are both form of nature, having body and soul; what makes humans different is the presence of rational mind, which makes them superior to other forms of nature. At the lowest level, we can see a form of nature, which has existence but not life like water or stars. This f...

    Read More

More about Analysis of Suicide by David Hume

Open Document