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    Carmelics

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    LoyalLoyalJusticeJustice
    Made withinDC&Austin
    Statements
    321,452
    Perspectives
    108,905
    Topics
    42
    Home/Original/inverse
    See Original
    Inverse View

    It is not the case that Self-interest, refined through convention and education into a concern for social utility, constitutes a historically adequate and approvable motive specifically for artificial virtues on Hume's own terms.

    ?Set your confidence on the premises below to see your aggregate.

    Reasons For

    1 perspective
    Reason for
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    • 1.Hume distinguishes natural virtues (benevolence, gratitude) from artificial ones; claiming self-interest adequately motivates both conflates them.
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    • 2.Sympathy operates independently of self-interest; it can generate concern for social utility without requiring self-interest as a foundation.
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    • 3.If self-interest only becomes virtuous through convention, the convention itself—not the self-interest—bears explanatory weight for moral behavior.
      ?

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    Reasons Against

    1 perspective
    Reason against
    ?
    • 1.Hume explicitly grounds artificial virtues like justice in utility and mutual advantage, making self-interest a natural foundation for them.
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    • 2.Convention and education genuinely transform raw self-interest into concern for social utility through habituation and sympathy mechanisms.
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    • 3.Hume rejects pure altruism as a motive; refined self-interest better explains why agents actually practice artificial virtues consistently.
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