Why Should We Be Wise?

Hume Studies 31 (1):3-19 (2005)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

There is a tension in Hume’s theory of belief. He tells us that beliefs are ideas that, as a result of certain natural mechanisms of the mind, become particularly lively and vivacious. Such an account seems to allow us little control over which beliefs we acquire, maintain or eschew. It seems I could not avoid feeling the strength of such ideas any more than I could avoid feeling the strength of the sun when exposed to it. Yet much of Hume’s writings on belief reveal that he thinks we do have quite a lot of control in the area of belief maintenance and that we can be blameworthy for holding some beliefs and not others. For example, he says that beliefs that are a result of prejudice, namely beliefs formed on the basis of “general rules contrary to present observation and experience,” are “errors.” It is similarly an error if I believe x rather than y simply because x occurred more recently and is thus conceived by my mind in a more lively manner. The man who trembles when looking at the precipice below him, despite the complete security afforded by the iron cage he is in, ought not to believe he is in danger. Hume says we “ought to regulate our judgment concerning causes and effect” with rules that are formed in the understanding. These rules teach us to “distinguish accidental circumstances from the effacacious causes”. In the first Enquiry, Hume says, “A wise man … proportions his belief to the evidence.”

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Wise Maxims / Wise Judging.Nancy Sherman - 1993 - The Monist 76 (1):41-65.
Can a Wise Society Be a Free One?Margaret Gilbert - 2006 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 44 (S1):151-167.
Would a Community of Wise Epicureans Be Just?Timothy O’Keefe - 2001 - Ancient Philosophy 21 (1):133-146.
Whiteness as wise provincialism: Royce and the rehabilitation of a racial category.Shannon Sullivan - 2008 - Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society 44 (2):pp. 236-262.
Collective Wisdom and Individual Freedom.Christopher McMahon - 2006 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 44 (S1):168-176.
Does reflection lead to wise choices?Lisa Bortolotti - 2011 - Philosophical Explorations 14 (3):297-313.
A new stoic: The wise patient.William E. Stempsey - 2004 - Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 29 (4):451 – 472.
Anselm on the Beauty of the Incarnation.Brian Leftow - 1995 - Modern Schoolman 72 (2-3):109 - 124.

Analytics

Added to PP
2011-02-21

Downloads
131 (#129,492)

6 months
2 (#668,348)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Miriam Schleifer McCormick
University of Richmond

Citations of this work

Hume’s practically epistemic conclusions?Hsueh Qu - 2014 - Philosophical Studies 170 (3):501-524.
Hume’s Doxastic Involuntarism.Hsueh Qu - 2017 - Mind 126 (501):53-92.
Hume's Epistemology: The State of the Question.Hsueh M. Qu - 2019 - Southern Journal of Philosophy 57 (3):301-323.
Hume on Education.Dan O'Brien - 2017 - Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 98 (S1):619-642.
What the Wise Ought Believe: A Voluntarist Interpretation of Hume's General Rules.Ryan Hickerson - 2013 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 21 (6):1133-1153.

View all 8 citations / Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references