On Wednesday, we talked about Empiricism. We mainly discussed Hume's "pricked finger" comment. We found it made sense, but the example is too extreme to make any rational sense.
True/False: Hume believes sympathy and utility motivates us.
The answer: True.
Huh? Did it make sense or not, to you guys? How 'bout some comments, group members?
ReplyDeleteOh boy. That was poorly written XD
ReplyDeleteHume's "pricked finger" states that our natural instinct is to look out for ourselves and not to others, which is perfectly reasonable. However, we felt that the example he used (a small amount of temporary pain vs. the destruction of half the world) makes us lose focus of the lesson it's supposed to teach. Any normal, moral person would (hopefully) make the choice to take temporary pain over the innocent killing of millions. It's perfectly reasonable to look out for yourself, but maybe bringing an apocalypse isn't in the best interest of everyone else...