Hume as Secularizer: An Assessment of Hume’s Secular Moral Philosophy

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McPherson, Kirstin Carlson

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2018

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17

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Journal Article

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Abstract

This paper explores Hume’s attempt to provide a secular account of ethics that does not depend upon any particular answer to larger metaphysical questions. I show that Hume is motivated to provide such an ethic, in part, in order to reduce the harms he thought to accompany religious morality. I argue, however, that Hume’s moral philosophy cannot have the independence from metaphysics that it purports to have and that there are also certain dangers for flourishing that attend his version of secular ethics, which must be taken into account if we are to seek to avoid them.|Keywords: religion, secularism, Hume, ethics, metaphysics

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Citation

McPherson, K. C. (2018). Hume as Secularizer: An Assessment of Hume’s Secular Moral Philosophy. Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion & Society Supplement Series, 17, 70-87.

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Rabbi Myer and Dorothy Kripke Center, Creighton University

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CC-BY 4.0

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http://hdl.handle.net/10504/119116

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https://moses.creighton.edu/jrs/toc/SS17.html

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1941-8450

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Supplement Series for the Journal of Religion and Society