A Study Of Hume’s Sympathy Theory

Hume’s theory of moral sympathy,from the perspective of human nature,in-depth investigation of human feelings,to explore the moral content of people,emphasizing the human experience,feeling.Hume established his theory of sympathy with the core of sympathy,justice and benevolence.Hume believes that the reason why people have a natural virtue from compassion,justice and other good feelings.However,Hume did not simply put sympathy as a moral emotion,but the use of the empirical understanding of theory of compassion is expounded,Hume’s theory of sympathy is based on impression and idea on the dual interaction.In Hume’s view,is sympathetic to the ideas of others and their ideas through imagination,combination or separation,when we visit the inner connection,and our hearts and feelings of others,like by external approach,causal relationship.Hume believes that the only reason to make moral judgments is not common sense,there is a gap between the value and the fact that the unspeakable.Although Hume questioned the reason,he did not completely abandon reason,reason is only for moral judgments play an auxiliary role.Hume’s theory of sympathy is the core of his whole ethical thought.He regards sympathy as the medium of emotional resonance between people.By virtue of sympathy,a good moral emotion can be passed on to others,even the society as a whole,which makes people have a sense of identity in the moral standards.Hume suggests that compassion is the root of moral judgment.Throughout Hume’s whole theory of sympathy,he put the consistency of moral judgment into sympathy and some limitations.First of all,sympathy has a certain effect on the formation of morality,but he can not is the decisive factor of the moral generation,because morality is a complex social phenomenon,is the result of comprehensive factors;secondly,the emotion itself has strong subjective color,the differences between the different subjects.Therefore,Hume’s theory of sympathy can not provide a general and effective foundation for moral judgment.However,Hume was an early study of sympathy to the ethical topic of the ethicist,has exerted a far-reaching influence on the later development of the moral philosophy of ethics.The positive factors in Hume’s theory of sympathy can be applied to the moral construction of our society,which is of practical value to cure the crisis of trust and the indifference of the people.