more on this theme
|
more from this thinker
Single Idea 22374
[filed under theme 20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 4. Responsibility for Actions
]
Full Idea
Where actions proceed not from some cause in the characters and dispositions of the person who performed them, they infix not themselves upon him, and can neither redound to his honour if good, nor infamy if evil. The action in itself may be blameable.
Gist of Idea
You can only hold people responsible for actions which arise out of their character
Source
David Hume (Treatise of Human Nature [1739], II.III.2), quoted by Philippa Foot - Free Will as Involving Determinism p.70
Book Ref
Foot,Philippa: 'Virtues and Vices' [Blackwell 1981], p.70
A Reaction
I agree with Foot that this is wrong. Uncharacteristic actions still reflect on the person. The last sentence is wrong too. If you ignore the agent of an action, it can't be distinguished from a flash of lightning.
The
60 ideas
from 'Treatise of Human Nature'
4008
|
Modern science has destroyed the Platonic synthesis of scientific explanation and morality
[Hume, by Taylor,C]
|
8067
|
The problem of getting to 'ought' from 'is' would also apply in getting to 'owes' or 'needs'
[Anscombe on Hume]
|
8382
|
For Hume a constant conjunction is both necessary and sufficient for causation
[Hume, by Crane]
|
19274
|
Hume seems to presuppose necessary connections between mental events
[Kripke on Hume]
|
11098
|
Momentary impressions are wrongly identified with one another on the basis of resemblance
[Hume, by Quine]
|
3819
|
Hume's 'bundle' won't distinguish one mind with ten experiences from ten minds
[Searle on Hume]
|
6526
|
Hume says objects are not a construction, but an imaginative leap
[Hume, by Robinson,H]
|
6489
|
Associationism results from having to explain intentionality just with sense-data
[Robinson,H on Hume]
|
6182
|
Even Hume didn't include mathematics in his empiricism
[Hume, by Kant]
|
5548
|
Hume became a total sceptic, because he believed that reason was a deception
[Hume, by Kant]
|
7446
|
The idea of inductive evidence, around 1660, made Hume's problem possible
[Hume, by Hacking]
|
20030
|
If one event causes another, the two events must be wholly distinct
[Hume, by Wilson/Schpall]
|
6692
|
For Hume, practical reason has little force, because we can always modify our desires
[Hume, by Graham]
|
12048
|
The only meaning we have for substance is a collection of qualities
[Hume]
|
7954
|
If we see a resemblance among objects, we apply the same name to them, despite their differences
[Hume]
|
9428
|
Nothing we clearly imagine is absolutely impossible
[Hume]
|
8649
|
Two numbers are equal if all of their units correspond to one another
[Hume]
|
4766
|
Necessity only exists in the mind, and not in objects
[Hume]
|
21291
|
There is no medium state between existence and non-existence
[Hume]
|
21293
|
Individuation is only seeing that a thing is stable and continuous over time
[Hume]
|
1207
|
Both number and unity are incompatible with the relation of identity
[Hume]
|
21290
|
Multiple objects cannot convey identity, because we see them as different
[Hume]
|
21289
|
'An object is the same with itself' is meaningless; it expresses unity, not identity
[Hume]
|
21292
|
Saying an object is the same with itself is only meaningful over a period of time
[Hume]
|
13424
|
Aristotelians propose accidents supported by substance, but they don't understand either of them
[Hume]
|
14301
|
We have no good concept of solidity or matter, because accounts of them are all circular
[Hume]
|
1321
|
If identity survives change or interruption, then resemblance, contiguity or causation must unite the parts of it
[Hume]
|
21296
|
If all of my perceptions were removed by death, nothing more is needed for total annihilation
[Hume]
|
21300
|
A change more obviously destroys an identity if it is quick and observed
[Hume]
|
21299
|
Changing a part can change the whole, not absolutely, but by its proportion of the whole
[Hume]
|
1330
|
If a republic can retain identity through many changes, so can an individual
[Hume]
|
21302
|
If a ruined church is rebuilt, its relation to its parish makes it the same church
[Hume]
|
21303
|
We accept the identity of a river through change, because it is the river's nature
[Hume]
|
21301
|
The purpose of the ship makes it the same one through all variations
[Hume]
|
1317
|
A person is just a fast-moving bundle of perceptions
[Hume]
|
1331
|
The parts of a person are always linked together by causation
[Hume]
|
1388
|
Hume gives us an interesting sketchy causal theory of personal identity
[Perry on Hume]
|
21297
|
A person is simply a bundle of continually fluctuating perceptions
[Hume]
|
1316
|
Introspection always discovers perceptions, and never a Self without perceptions
[Hume]
|
1333
|
Memory only reveals personal identity, by showing cause and effect
[Hume]
|
1332
|
We use memory to infer personal actions we have since forgotten
[Hume]
|
21305
|
Memory not only reveals identity, but creates it, by producing resemblances
[Hume]
|
21307
|
Who thinks that because you have forgotten an incident you are no longer that person?
[Hume]
|
21306
|
Causation unites our perceptions, by producing, destroying and modifying each other
[Hume]
|
21294
|
A continuous lifelong self must be justified by a single sustained impression, which we don't have
[Hume]
|
21295
|
When I introspect I can only observe my perceptions, and never a self which has them
[Hume]
|
21298
|
We pretend our perceptions are continuous, and imagine a self to fill the gaps
[Hume]
|
21304
|
Identity in the mind is a fiction, like that fiction that plants and animals stay the same
[Hume]
|
21806
|
Memory, senses and understanding are all founded on the imagination
[Hume]
|
22374
|
You can only hold people responsible for actions which arise out of their character
[Hume]
|
8257
|
Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will
[Hume]
|
3807
|
Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions
[Hume]
|
3650
|
Total selfishness is not irrational
[Hume]
|
4578
|
You can't move from 'is' to 'ought' without giving some explanation or reason for the deduction
[Hume]
|
22382
|
We cannot discover vice by studying a wilful murder; that only arises from our own feelings
[Hume]
|
12417
|
Mathematicians only accept their own proofs when everyone confims them
[Hume]
|
11950
|
We have no idea of powers, because we have no impressions of them
[Hume]
|
11949
|
There may well be powers in things, with which we are quite unacquainted
[Hume]
|
11941
|
The distinction between a power and its exercise is entirely frivolous
[Hume]
|
11942
|
Power is the possibility of action, as discovered by experience
[Hume]
|