Single Idea 4581

[catalogued under 22. Metaethics / B. Value / 1. Nature of Value / b. Fact and value]

Full Idea

Vice and virtue may be compared to sounds, colours, heat and cold, which, according to modern philosophy, are not qualities in objects but perceptions in the mind.

Gist of Idea

Virtues and vices are like secondary qualities in perception, found in observers, not objects

Source

David Hume (Letters [1739], to Hutcheson 1740)

Book Reference

'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 2', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.110


A Reaction

Very revealing about the origin of the is/ought idea, but this is an assertion rather than an argument. Most Greeks treat value as a primary quality of things (e.g. life, harmony, beauty, health).