Hume the humane
Hume believed we were nothing more or less than human: that’s why he’s the amiable, modest, generous philosopher we need now.
ReadTag: Reason & rationality
Want the truth about alcohol?
Health advice too often follows the principle of the noble lie. Rather than being told the plain truth, we are told what the authorities believe will lead us to behave properly, when “properly” means not just in the way that is most prudent for ourselves, but what is seen to be morally appropriate. When the best current scientific evidence meets moralising paternalism, it is truth that starts to bend.
ReadCow philosophy
Rosmaund Young’s The Secret Life of Cows made me think of how Hume did not so much elevate the animals to the supposed level of humans as claim that much human “reasoning” is no more rational than that of other animals.
ReadTime to abandon grand ethical theories?
There is space for a kind of moral seriousness that sees importance in doing the right thing without believing we can ever have a formula for specifying what the right thing is. Many moral philosophers are at work in this space, trying to show that even if we can’t tidy up every inch, there are more or less rigorous ways of muddling through.
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