David Hume Quotes About Morality

• Si Dios es omnipotente, omnisciente y totalmente bueno, ¿de dónde viene el mal? Si Dios quiere evitar el mal pero no puede, entonces no es omnipotente. Si puede evitar el mal pero no lo hace, entonces no es bueno. En cualquier caso, no es Dios.

  David Hume

  Mal, Religión, Doe

• The rules of morality are not the conclusion of our reason.

  David Hume

  Pregnancy, Ethics, Morality

• Disbelief in futurity loosens in a great measure the ties of morality, and may be for that reason pernicious to the peace of civil society.

  David Hume

  Ties, May, Belief

• How could politics be a science, if laws and forms of government had not a uniform influence upon society? Where would be the foundation of morals, if particular characters had no certain or determinate power to produce particular sentiments, and if these sentiments had no constant operation on actions?

  David Hume

  Character, Law, Government

  David Hume (1875). “Essays Moral, Political, and Literary”, p.73

• Parece entonces, digo yo, que dejas la política enteramente fuera de la cuestión, y nunca supones, que un magistrado sabio pueda justamente ser celoso de ciertos principios de la filosofía, tales como los de Epicuro, los cuales, negando una existencia divina, y consecuentemente una providencia y un estado futuro, parecen aflojar, en gran medida, los lazos de la moralidad, y pueden suponerse, por esa razón, perniciosos para la paz de la sociedad civil.

  David Hume

  Wise, Philosophy, Jealous

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2000). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: A Critical Edition”, p.101, Oxford University Press

• Truth is disputable; not taste: what exists in the nature of things is the standard of our judgement; what each man feels within himself is the standard of sentiment. Propositions in geometry may be proved, systems in physics may be controverted; but the harmony of verse, the tenderness of passion, the brilliancy of wit, must give immediate pleasure. No man reasons concerning another's beauty; but frequently concerning the justice or injustice of his actions.

  David Hume

  Pasión, Hombres, Dar

  David Hume (2016). “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: Revision of Great Book”, p.131, VM eBooks

• But, historians, and even common sense, may inform us, that, however specious these ideas of perfect equality may seem, they are really, at bottom, impracticable; and were they not so, would be extremely pernicious to human society. Render possessions ever so equal, men's different degrees of art, care, and industry will immediately break that equality. Or if you check these virtues, you reduce society to the most extreme indigence; and instead of preventing want and beggary in a few, render it unavoidable to the whole community.

  David Hume

  Art, Men, Ideas

  David Hume (2013). “Essays and Treatises on Philosophical Subjects”, p.290, Broadview Press

• Estos argumentos de uno y otro lado (y se podrían presentar muchos más) son tan plausibles, que me inclino a sospechar que, tanto los unos como los otros, pueden ser sólidos y satisfactorios, y que la razón y el sentimiento coinciden en casi todas las determinaciones y conclusiones morales.

  David Hume

  Determination, May, Might

  David Hume, J. B. Schneewind (1983). "An Enquiry Concerning The Principles of Morals", p.15, Hackett Publishing.

• We may conclude, therefore, that, in order to establish laws for the regulation of property, we must be acquainted with the nature and situation of man; must reject appearances, which may be false, though specious; and must search for those rules, which are, on the whole, most useful and beneficial.

  David Hume

  Hombres, Orden, Ley

  David Hume, J. B. Schneewind (1983). “An Enquiry Concerning The Principles of Morals”, p.28, Hackett Publishing

• .. that which renders morality an active principle and constitutes virtue our happiness, and vice our misery: it is probable, I say, that this final sentence depends on some internal sense or feeling, which nature has made universal in the whole species.

  David Hume

  Feelings, Vices, Principles

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2006). “An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals: A Critical Edition”, p.5, Oxford University Press

• Pero en muchos órdenes de belleza, particularmente en los de las artes más finas, es necesario emplear mucho razonamiento para sentir el sentimiento apropiado; y un gusto falso puede ser corregido frecuentemente por el argumento y la reflexión. Hay motivos justos para concluir que la belleza moral pertenece a esta última especie, y exige la ayuda de nuestras facultades intelectuales, para darle una influencia adecuada en la mente humana.

  David Hume

  Arte, Reflexión, Orden

  David Hume, J. B. Schneewind (1983). "An Enquiry Concerning The Principles of Morals", p.15, Hackett Publishing.

• From the apparent usefulness of the social virtues, it has readily been inferred by sceptics, both ancient and modern, that all moral distinctions arise from education, and were, at first, invented, and afterwards encouraged ... in order to render men tractable, and subdue their natural ferocity and selfishness, which incapacitated them for society.

  David Hume

  Men, Order, Selfishness

  David Hume (2006). “An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals”, p.48, Cosimo, Inc.

• We may observe that, in displaying the praises of any humane, beneficent man, there is one circumstance which never fails to be amply insisted on, namely, the happiness and satisfaction, derived to society from his intercourse and good offices.

  David Hume

  Men, Office, May

  David Hume (1826). “And the human understanding. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. Appendix. The natural history of religion”, p.248

• .. the voice of nature and experience seems plainly to oppose the selfish theory.

  David Hume

  Selfish, Voice, Ethics

  David Hume (1768). “An enquiry concerning human understanding. A dissertation on the passions. An enquiry concerning the principles of morals. The natural history of religion”, p.296

• In all determinations of morality, this circumstance of public utility is ever principally in view; and wherever disputes arise, either in philosophy or common life, concerning the bounds of duty, the questions cannot, by any means, be decided with greater certainty, than by ascertaining, on any side, the true interests of mankind. If any false opinion, embraced from appearances, has been found to prevail; as soon as farther experience and sounder reasoning have given us juster notions of human affairs, we retract our first sentiment, and adjust anew the boundaries of moral good and evil.

  David Hume

  Determination, Philosophy, Mean

  David Hume (2010). “Moral and Political Philosophy”, p.221, Simon and Schuster

• It is still open for me, as well as you, to regulate my behavior, by my experience of past events.

  David Hume

  Past, Events, Ethics

  DAVID HUME (1854). “THE PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS OF DAVID HUME.”, p.160

• He sees such a desperate rapaciousness prevail; such a disregard to equity, such contempt of order, such stupid blindness to future consequences, as must immediately have the most tragical conclusion, and most terminate in destruction to the greater number, and in a total dissolution of society to the rest.

  David Hume

  Stupid, Order, Numbers

  David Hume (2013). “An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals”, p.16, Simon and Schuster

• Últimamente se ha entablado una controversia, que vale mucho más la pena examinar, acerca del fundamento general de la moral; si se deriva de la razón o del sentimiento; si llegamos a conocerla por una cadena de argumentos e inducción, o por un sentimiento inmediato y un sentido interno más fino; si, como todo buen juicio sobre la verdad y la falsedad, debe ser el mismo para todo ser racional inteligente; o si, como la percepción de la belleza y la deformidad, debe fundarse enteramente en la estructura y constitución particulares de la especie humana.

  David Hume

  Intelligent, Perception Of Beauty, Judgement

• ... que una regla que, en la especulación, puede parecer la más ventajosa para la sociedad, puede sin embargo resultar, en la práctica, totalmente perniciosa y destructiva.

  David Hume

  Práctica, mayo, ética

  David Hume, Tom L. Beauchamp (2006). "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals: A Critical Edition", p.20, Oxford University Press

• If morality had naturally no influence on human passions and actions, it were in vain to take such pains to inculcate it; and nothing would be more fruitless than that multitude of rules and precepts with which all moralists abound.

  David Hume

  Pain, Passion, Would Be

  David Hume (2016). “A Treatise of Human Nature: Revision of Great Book”, p.425, VM eBooks

• The end of all moral speculations is to teach us our duty; and, by proper representations of the deformity of vice and beauty of virtue, beget correspondent habits, and engage us to avoid the one, and embrace the other.

  David Hume

  Vicios, Moral, Virtud

  David Hume, Geoffrey Sayre-McCord “Moral Philosophy”, Hackett Publishing

• All morality depends upon our sentiments; and when any action or quality of the mind pleases us after a certain manner we say it is virtuous; and when the neglect or nonperformance of it displeases us after a like manner, we say that we lie under an obligation to perform it.

  David Hume

  Lying, Mind, Quality

  David Hume (2010). “Moral and Political Philosophy”, p.142, Simon and Schuster

• Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.

  David Hume

  Passion, Morality, Action

  David Hume (1874). “A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion”, p.235

• THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. Such topics, therefore, ought entirely to be forborne; as serving nothing to the discovery of truth, but only to make the person of an antagonist odious.

  David Hume

  Philosophical, Discovery, Topics

  David Hume (1875). “Essays Moral, Political, and Literary”, p.79

• The proper office of religion is to regulate the heart of men, humanize their conduct, infuse the spirit of temperance, order, andobedience; and as its operation is silent, and only enforces the motives of morality and justice, it is in danger of being overlooked, and confounded with these other motives.

  David Hume

  Corazón, Hombres, Orden

  David Hume, John Charles Addison Gaskin (1998). “Dialogues and Natural History of Religion”, p.122, Oxford University Press, USA

También te puede gustar:

Immanuel Kant

John Locke

René Descartes

George Berkeley

Thomas Hobbes

Adam Smith

Jean-Jacques Rousseau