A Study Of The Relationship Between Passion And Reason In Hume's Moral Philosophy

In this dissertation I analyze Hume's moral philosophy from the perspective of methodology (mainly based on his A Treatise of Human Nature), that is, his systematic treatment of the relationship between passion and reason, to reveal the essential characteristics and implications of his moral philosophy. I argue that his methodology is a combination of psychological atomism and process-oriented naturalism, which forms the logical advancement of his moral philosophy.At first I introduce the historical context of Hume's philosophy:the social-cultural background in general, the philosophical and ethical predecessors, and the logical evolution of philosophy and ethics before Hume, stressing that Hume's methodology of naturalism is a necessary result of the interaction of rationalism and empiricism before him and his treatment of passion and reason can also be flashed back to his predecessors'different response to the moral philosophy of Hobbes.In chapter I I describe Hume's methodology of naturalism on three levels:a naturalism intended to solve the supreme problem of metaphysics on the level of its ultimate end; a process-oriented naturalism on the level of its philosophical implication, and individual psychologism on the level of its application. I further argue that the there is a tension between his process-oriented naturalism and his individual psychologism (or psychological atomism) which results in a conflict between his system and his methodology.In chapter II I discuss Hume's concepts of passion and reason respectively, arguing that his concept of passion represents the principle of activity in consciousness and actions and reason the principle of determination, Through a comparison between his epistemology and his theory of passion, I point out that his conception of reason undergoes in turn the denial of activity, the partly recovery of activity and the ultimate loss of activity while the conception of passion also undergoes different stages from impulse to the structure of ends and the structure of objectivity----oth are dialectically logical process. The discussion in this chapter gives an exposition of Hume's establishing of moral subjectivity and makes a framework of concepts for the further development of my dissertation.In chapter III I discuss Hume's theory of the distinction between good and evil,arguing that the principles of activity and determination here turn respectively into the principles of subjectivity and objectivity.This discussion falls into three parts: (1)the theory of will and motives;(2)the principles of sympathy and comparison;(3)the distinction between good and evil. All these three parts forms a process for moral subjectivity to determine moral objectivity.In chapterâ…£, I discuss Hume's theory of virtues, arguing that arguing that the principles of activity and determination take the form of normality and utility in artificial virtues and utility and agreeableness in natural virtues. This is also a process of the moral sense being determined externally and internally by reason, in which the moral sense develops from a natural principle of sympathy, into a sentiment determined by a external system of justice then into a disinterested and impartial appraisal of man's good characters. All this discussion finally leads to the discovery of Hume's personality aesthetics.In chapter V, I sum up all above discussions, describe the whole process of Hume's application of methodology of a process-oriented naturalism to his moral philosophy and conclude that Hume's moral philosophy can be named as a internal naturalist moral philosophy owing to its special methodology. Then I discuss how Hume's psychological atomism undermines his naturalism and how his moral philosophy results from this conflict in three levels of disharmony:(1)disharmony between the integrated self of passions and the disintegrated self of knowing; (2) disharmony between a will determined by motives and a overall mechanistic explanation of psychological process;(3)disharmony between the sensual and intellectual traits of the principle of sympathy. Finally I outline the development of moral philosophy after Hume on the problem of passion-reason relationship and point out Hume's potential influence on contemporary moral philosophy.