An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
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David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals argues that morals are not based in rational thought, but rather are sentimental endeavors. This text highlights how approval and disapproval can be used to make moral judgments, and how this might elevate certain aspects of society. Hume's book delves into the human psyche and, therefore, aids our understanding of society and life as a whole.
David Hume
David Hume was an eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist, and the author of A Treatise of Human Nature, considered by many to be one of the most important philosophical works ever published.
Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at an early age and considered a career in law before deciding that the pursuit of knowledge was his true calling. Hume’s writings on rationalism and empiricism, free will, determinism, and the existence of God would be enormously influential on contemporaries such as Adam Smith, as well as the philosophers like Schopenhauer, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Popper, who succeeded him. Hume died in 1776.
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