The View Of Hume 's Freedom From The Perspective Of Moral Philosophy

David Hume began his deeper thought about the issue of freedom from the viewpoint of empiricism.This essay is,in a systematic way, intended to present Hume’s thought of freedom which is on the basis of empiricism and this essay consists of three parts.The first part introduces the theoretical background and premise of Hume’s thought of freedom, theoretical background includes the thought of freedom tracing back to the time of ancient Greek,Medieval,Renaissance, Modern Philosophy,which influences Hume’s thought of freedom, the premise discusses the theory of concept and causation for the reason that the issue of will and motivation in relation to the Hume’s thought of freedom can not be isolated from the theory of concept, the issue of the relationship between freedom and necessity depends on his attitude towards causation.The second part is the core part which discuss the basic content of Hume’s thought of freedom, first, this part illustrate Hume’s three classifications of freedom—freedom,spontaneous freedom and neutral freedom via analyzing Hume’s works—A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, this part also summarize positive freedom and negative freedom and demonstrate Hume’s solution to the issue of freedom—compatibilism,in this part,this essay analyze the meaning of will, capability, opportunity which is relevant to the Hume’s thought of freedom, to specify Hume’s thorough comprehension with the issue of freedom, otherwise, this part shows how Hume prove and solve the contradiction between freedom and necessity, relation between freedom and moral responsibility.The third part is the conclusion of the essay which includes the evaluation of Hume’s thought of freedom, concerning its meaning and limitation.