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Morality (Ethics)In Edward Barbarell Don Garrett (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Empiricism (Greenwood Press), . pp. 269-73. 1997.
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6Faith in Theory and Practice: Essays on Justifying Religious Belief (edited book)Open Court. 1993.Two views of theistic faith are presented in this book. Some contributors see faith as a set of beliefs about God and seek substantiation for those beliefs. Others perceive faith less as a set of beliefs than as a special way of living in relationship to God. The connection between these two views is an intriguing theme winding through the collection and explicitly addressed by Michael A. Brown in the closing essay. The epistemology of religion is now one of the most exciting and controversial a…Read more
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7On HumeWadsworth. 2000.This brief text assists students in understanding Hume's philosophy and thinking so that they can more fully engage in useful, intelligent class dialogue and improve their understanding of course content. Part of the "Wadsworth Philosophers Series,", ON HUME is written by a philosopher deeply versed in the philosophy of this key thinker. Like other books in the series, this concise book offers sufficient insight into the thinking of a notable philosopher better enabling students to engage in the…Read more
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3Review of D.D. Raphael, Adam Smith (Oxford University Press, 1985) (review)Philosophical Review (4): 612-15. 1987.
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38Moral and scientific realism: essays in honor of Richard N. Boyd and Nicholas L. Sturgeon (Philosophical Studies 172:4). (edited book)Springer Netherlands. 2015.Introduction to an issue on moral and scientific realism in honor of Richard N. Boyd and Nicholas L. Sturgeon (Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, guest editor).
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76A Companion to Hume (edited book)Wiley-Blackwell. 2008.Comprised of twenty-nine specially commissioned essays, _A Companion to Hume_ examines the depth of the philosophies and influence of one of history's most remarkable thinkers. Demonstrates the range of Hume's work and illuminates the ongoing debates that it has generated Organized by subject, with introductions to each section to orient the reader Explores topics such as knowledge, passion, morality, religion, economics, and politics Examines the paradoxes of Hume's thought and his legacy, cove…Read more
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2Hume and the Passions as Original ExistencesIn Lorenzo Greco & Alessio Vaccari (ed.), Hume Readings, Edizioni Di Storia E Letteratura. 2012.
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70Ruling passionsThe Philosophers' Magazine 54 (54): 85-89. 2011.A radical implication of Hume’s theory of motivation is that it makes no sense, strictly speaking, to call actions rational or irrational. So, he claims, it is not contrary to reason for me to prefer the destruction of the world to getting a scratch on my finger.
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29Religion and Faction in Hume’s Moral Philosophy (review)Faith and Philosophy 16 (4): 569-573. 1999.
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130Kantian Tunes on a Humean Instrument: Why Hume Is Not Really a Skeptic about Practical ReasoningCanadian Journal of Philosophy 27 (2). 1997.The theory that practical reasoning is wholly instrumental says that the only practical function of reason is to tell agents the means to their ends, while their ends are fixed by something other than reason itself. In this essay I argue that Hume has an instrumentalist theory of practical reasoning. This thesis may sound as unexciting as the contention that Kant is a rationalist about morality. For who would have thought otherwise? After all, isn't the ‘instrumentalist’ line in contemporary dis…Read more
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107How does the Humean sense of duty motivate?Journal of the History of Philosophy 34 (3): 383-407. 1996.On Hume's account, when we lack virtues that would typically prompt moral action, we can instead be motivated by the "sense of duty." Surprisingly, Hume seems to maintain that, in such cases, we are motivated by a desire to avoid the unpleasantness of "self-hatred" evoked in us when we realize we lack certain traits others possess. This account has led commentators to argue that Hume is not a moral internalist, since motivation by duty is motivation by a self-interested desire. This paper conclu…Read more
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104Strength of Mind and the Calm and Violent PassionsRes Philosophica 92 (3): 1-21. 2015.Hume’s distinction between the calm and violent passions is one whose boundaries are not entirely clear. However, it is crucial to understanding his motivational theory and to identifying an unusual virtue he calls “strength of mind,” the motivational prevalence of the calm passions over the violent. In this paper, I investigate the boundaries of the calm passions and consider the constitution of strength of mind and why Hume regards it as an admirable trait. These are provocative issues for two…Read more
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18Review of David Fate Norton (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hume (review)Philosophical Review 104 (2): 275-77. 1995.
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284Moral internalism and moral cognitivism in Hume’s metaethicsSynthese 152 (3). 2006.Most naturalists think that the belief/desire model from Hume is the best framework for making sense of motivation. As Smith has argued, given that the cognitive state (belief) and the conative state (desire) are separate on this model, if a moral judgment is cognitive, it could not also be motivating by itself. So, it looks as though Hume and Humeans cannot hold that moral judgments are states of belief (moral cognitivism) and internally motivating (moral internalism). My chief claim is that th…Read more
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74Hume’s Psychology of the Passions: The Literature and Future DirectionsJournal of the History of Philosophy 53 (4): 565-605. 2015.in a recent article entitled “Hume on the Passions,” Stephen Buckle opens with the claim that Hume’s theory of the passions has largely been neglected. “Apart from a couple of famous sections in the Treatise concerning the sources of action,” he writes, “the subject matter has rarely excited interest.”1 His analysis of why the subject of the passions in Hume has been uninspiring points to the fact that readers have largely misunderstood the point of Hume’s theory. They usually regard the account…Read more
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16Carol Jean White, 1946-2000Proceedings and Addresses of the American Philosophical Association 74 (5). 2001.
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Is Physicalism Near Enough? On Jaegwon Kim’s ‘Physicalism or Something Near Enough’In João Sàágua (ed.), A Explicação da Interpretação Humana/The Explanation of Human Interpretation, Edições Colibri. pp. 111-16. 2004.
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38The British Moralists and the Internal 'Ought': 1640-1740 (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 35 (3): 470-472. 1997.
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69Reasons From The Humean PerspectivePhilosophical Quarterly 62 (249): 777-796. 2012.Humeans about practical reasoning have tried to explain how some of our desires are reason‐giving and some are not. On one account, we act from reasons only when we act on desires that cohere in a consistent set. On another account, we act on reasons only when we act on desires that do not undermine our values. Both accounts are problematic. First, the notion of a consistent set of desires is vague and introduces a criterion not necessarily rooted in the agent's own motivations. Second, valuing …Read more
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68Love and benevolence in Hutcheson's and Hume's theories of the passionsBritish Journal for the History of Philosophy 12 (4). 2004.This Article does not have an abstract
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248Hume on Motivating Sentiments, the General Point of View, and the Inculcation of "Morality"Hume Studies 20 (1): 37-58. 1994.That Hume 's theory can be interpreted in two widely divergent ways-as a version of sentimentalism and as an ideal observer theory-is symptomatic of a puzzle ensconced in Hume 's theory. How can the ground of morality be internal and motivating when an inference to the feelings of a spectator in "the general point of view" is typically necessary to get to genuine moral distinctions? This paper considers and rejects the suggestion that in moral education, for Hume, the inculcation of morality int…Read more
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96The inertness of reason and Hume’s legacyCanadian Journal of Philosophy 42 (S1): 117-133. 2012.Hume argues against the seventeenth-century rationalists that reason is impotent to motivate action and to originate morality. Hume's arguments have standardly been considered the foundation for the Humean theory of motivation in contemporary philosophy. The Humean theory alleges that beliefs require independent desires to motivate action. Recently, however, new commentaries allege that Hume's argument concerning the inertness of reason has no bearing on whether beliefs can motivate. These comme…Read more
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15Review of Joyce Jenkins, Jennifer Whiting, Christopher Williams (eds.), Persons and Passions: Essays in Honor of Annette Baier (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2006 (2). 2006.
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5Francis HutchesonIn Steven Nadler (ed.), A Companion to Early Modern Philosophy, Blackwell. 2002.This chapter contains section titled: Hutcheson's Life and the Intellectual Climate of his Time Hutcheson's Philosophy Theory of Morality Contemporary Discussions of Hutcheson's Philosophy.
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2Moral Naturalism and the Possibility of Making Ourselves BetterIn Brad Wilburn (ed.), Moral Cultivation, Lexington Books. 2007.
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27Hume's Theory of Moral Judgment: A Study in the Unity of A Treatise of Human Nature (review) (review)Hume Studies 19 (2): 324-326. 1994.
Williamsburg, Virginia, United States of America
Areas of Specialization
17th/18th Century Philosophy |
David Hume |
Emotion and Reason |
Moral Psychology |
Motivation |