Morality and Relations before Hume
In his Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, David Hume said that a group of earlier modern philosophers, beginning with Malebranche, held that morality was founded on relations. In this paper I follow up on that suggestion by investigating pre-Humean views in moral philosophy according to wh...
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2025-06-01
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| Series: | Journal of Modern Philosophy |
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| Online Access: | https://jmphil.org/article/id/2444/ |
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| author | Stewart Duncan |
| author_facet | Stewart Duncan |
| author_sort | Stewart Duncan |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In his Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, David Hume said that a group of earlier modern philosophers, beginning with Malebranche, held that morality was founded on relations. In this paper I follow up on that suggestion by investigating pre-Humean views in moral philosophy according to which morality is founded on relations. I do that by looking at the work of Nicolas Malebranche, John Locke, and Samuel Clarke. Each of them talked prominently about relations in their accounts of basic aspects of morality. Beyond that, each of them turns out to have held both metaphysical and epistemological views that might be described as founding morality on relations. Despite the definite differences between the three philosophers’ approaches, Hume does seem to have noticed a genuine connection here—even though he himself tended to ignore significant versions of this approach when criticizing it. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c87c46d5362e45b594c352d9ebb2bb5c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2644-0652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-06-01 |
| publisher | Aperio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Modern Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj-art-c87c46d5362e45b594c352d9ebb2bb5c2025-08-20T03:31:11ZengAperioJournal of Modern Philosophy2644-06522025-06-017010.25894/jmp.2444Morality and Relations before HumeStewart DuncanIn his Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, David Hume said that a group of earlier modern philosophers, beginning with Malebranche, held that morality was founded on relations. In this paper I follow up on that suggestion by investigating pre-Humean views in moral philosophy according to which morality is founded on relations. I do that by looking at the work of Nicolas Malebranche, John Locke, and Samuel Clarke. Each of them talked prominently about relations in their accounts of basic aspects of morality. Beyond that, each of them turns out to have held both metaphysical and epistemological views that might be described as founding morality on relations. Despite the definite differences between the three philosophers’ approaches, Hume does seem to have noticed a genuine connection here—even though he himself tended to ignore significant versions of this approach when criticizing it.https://jmphil.org/article/id/2444/HumeMalebrancheLockeClarkemoralityrelations |
| spellingShingle | Stewart Duncan Morality and Relations before Hume Journal of Modern Philosophy Hume Malebranche Locke Clarke morality relations |
| title | Morality and Relations before Hume |
| title_full | Morality and Relations before Hume |
| title_fullStr | Morality and Relations before Hume |
| title_full_unstemmed | Morality and Relations before Hume |
| title_short | Morality and Relations before Hume |
| title_sort | morality and relations before hume |
| topic | Hume Malebranche Locke Clarke morality relations |
| url | https://jmphil.org/article/id/2444/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT stewartduncan moralityandrelationsbeforehume |