IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB435744845

A Powerless Conscience: Hume on Reflection and Acting Conscientiously (2017)

Greco, Lorenzo (Author)

British Journal for the History of Philosophy
Volume: 25
Issue: 3
Pages: 547-564

DOI: 10.1080/09608788.2016.1249334

URI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09608788.2016.1249334

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

If one looks for the notion of conscience in Hume, there appears to be a contrast between the loose use of it that can be found in his History of England, and the stricter use of it Hume makes in his philosophical works. It is my belief that, notwithstanding the problems Hume’s philosophy raises for a notion such as conscience, it is possible to frame a positive Humean explanation of it. I want to suggest that, far from corresponding to a mental power or to a faculty of some sort, conscience for Hume can be understood as a reflective form of self-surveying. This becomes apparent if the discussion about conscience as presented in A Treatise of Human Nature is integrated with other notions Hume introduces in An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals when discussing the case of the ‘sensible knave’, such as those of inward peace of mind, consciousness of integrity, and reflection on one’s own conduct. To further explicate my line of argument, I shall also contrast Hume’s conclusions with some arguments presented by other authors in this regard, such as Bernard Mandeville and Joseph Butler.

...More

Included in

Article Federico Boccaccini; Anna Marmodoro (2017) Powers, Abilities and Skills in Early Modern Philosophy. British Journal for the History of Philosophy (pp. 435-442). unapi

Citation URI

https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB435744845/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Book Jacqueline Anne Taylor; (2015)
Reflecting Subjects: Passion, Sympathy, and Society in Hume's Philosophy (/isis/citation/CBB180375452/)

Article Holthoon, Frederic L. van; (2001)
Dal sentimento all'utilità. Hume e la riscrittura del III libro del Trattato (/isis/citation/CBB000640770/)

Thesis Kalt, Stefan H.; (2003)
David Hume's Moral Science and the Illusions of Common Life (/isis/citation/CBB001562281/)

Article Azzone, Giovanni Felice; (2003)
The Dual Biological Identity of Human Beings and the Naturalization of Morality (/isis/citation/CBB000600373/)

Book Habibi, Don A.; (2001)
John Stuart Mill and the Ethic of Human Growth (/isis/citation/CBB000102296/)

Book William Boos; Florence S. Boos; (2018)
Metamathematics and the Philosophical Tradition (/isis/citation/CBB060593902/)

Article Tamás Demeter; (2023)
Sympathetic Organizations: Body, mind, and society in Robert Whytt and David Hume (/isis/citation/CBB019285047/)

Book James A. Harris; (2019)
Hume: An Intellectual Biography (/isis/citation/CBB460332792/)

Article Louden, Robert B.; (2008)
Anthropology from a Kantian Point of View: Toward a Cosmopolitan Conception of Human Nature (/isis/citation/CBB000931156/)

Article Thomson, Ann; (2010)
Animals, Humans, Machines and Thinking Matter, 1690--1707 (/isis/citation/CBB000932599/)

Book Carhart, Michael C.; (2007)
The Science of Culture in Enlightenment Germany (/isis/citation/CBB000950729/)

Book Lynn Festa; (2021)
Fiction Without Humanity: Person, Animal, Thing in Early Enlightenment Literature and Culture (/isis/citation/CBB396379434/)

Chapter Thompson, Helen; (2012)
The “Fair Savage”: Empiricism and Essence in Sarah Fielding's The History of Ophelia (/isis/citation/CBB001200745/)

Book Kramnick, Jonathan Brody; (2010)
Actions and Objects from Hobbes to Richardson (/isis/citation/CBB001250460/)

Thesis Goldman, Judith E.; (2007)
Visible Hand: “System,” Method, and Suasion in the Human Natural Science of Adam Smith (/isis/citation/CBB001561346/)

Article R. J. W. Mills; (2015)
The Reception of ‘That Bigoted Silly Fellow’ James Beattie's Essay on Truth in Britain 1770–1830 (/isis/citation/CBB835437196/)

Book Mark G. Spencer; (2013)
David Hume: Historical Thinker, Historical Writer (/isis/citation/CBB602297976/)

Article Catherine Wilson; (2016)
Hume and Vital Materialism (/isis/citation/CBB576373771/)

Article A. Fundarò; (2017)
Hume e la teoria delle passioni (/isis/citation/CBB360389008/)

Article Hsueh Qu; (2016)
Prescription, Description, and Hume's Experimental Method (/isis/citation/CBB423983702/)

Comments

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}