Single Idea 8257

[catalogued under 20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism]

Full Idea

Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will.

Gist of Idea

Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will

Source

David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], II.III.3)

Book Reference

Hume,David: 'A Treatise of Human Nature', ed/tr. Mossner,Ernest C. [Penguin 1969], p.460


A Reaction

This is Hume's notorious total rejection of Socratic intellectualism, a stilleto in the back of the 'age of reason'. Hume thinks desire is the motivator. He's probably right. Why should truth motivate? See Idea 4421.

Related Ideas

Idea 4421 Philosophers have never asked why there is a will to truth in the first place [Nietzsche]

Idea 3839 Only an internal reason can actually motivate the agent to act [Searle]