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19 September 2014
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Great Thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment (II)

Hume On Morality
David HumeMorality for Hume wasn’t God-given creation, but a human construct founded on reason or human sentiment. The fact that people argue about whether an action is right or wrong and use a rational form of discussion to reach their conclusions were strong arguments in favour of morality being founded on reason. But we also have feelings of approval or disapproval about our actions and this shows that sentiment is also part of the human condition. The connection between reason and sentiment was, for Hume, the essence of morality. It is, essentially, a practical force which moves us to act in certain ways. Reason by itself, although useful for discussing morality, can never on its own impel us to act. Hume believed that a combination of the two were required to make moral judgements, for ‘Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.’ In the ‘Age of Reason’, Hume recognised that we are fundamentally driven by our passions, by our sentiments, which, in turn, shapes our reason.

For Hume, morality is instrumental in the happiness of mankind. If we have affection for mankind then we seek its happiness, we are benevolent. Benevolence to humanity forms the basis of our morality, which is reinforced by our reason as it pursues happiness. For Hume humanity was essentially benevolent and not fallen or sinful as the Church taught.

Hume on Religion
Needless to say, Hume’s theories upset the Kirk. In 1748, having been already denied the chair of Moral Philosophy at Edinburgh University, Hume went even further in his challenge of church doctrine. In his essay, On Miracles, Hume challenged the revelations contained in the Bible. He believed that no report of a miracle could be trusted on the basis that everything had a scientific explanation. However, in order to keep out of trouble with the ecclesiastical authorities, he restricted his argument as to whether one could believe the testimony of witnesses to miracles. Hume certainly wasn’t lacking modesty when he claimed that his essay would prove an ‘everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures.’

In Hume's view, experience is our only sure judge. From experience we learn that 'A' is usually followed by 'B', that, for example, if we let an apple drop it falls to the ground, and, if we do it again tomorrow the same thing will happen. From out of experience we come to expect that 'A' will indeed be followed by 'B'. In the case of miracles, which Hume defines as acts which break the laws of nature, the improbability of them happening is so enormous that it is impossible to give them any credibility. In Hume’s dictum ‘A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence’.

David Hume - On his Deathbed
In death, Hume was determined to set an example. James Boswell got the journalistic scoop of the Enlightenment when he interviewed Hume on his death bed. Hume stated that he no longer believed in religion and was sceptical of any afterlife, adding that when he heard a man was religious, he concluded he was a rascal, although he had known some instances of very good men being religious. In the face of death, Boswell found Hume ‘placid’ and ‘even cheerful’. Deeply troubled by his own religious convictions, Boswell was very disturbed by the Hume’s unconcerned atheism. Weeks later, he appealed to Dr Samuel Johnson to calm his fears; Adam SmithJohnson told Boswell that Hume was lying. The evidence suggests otherwise.

Adam Smith, Moral Philosopher 1723-90
The work of Kirkcaldy’s most famous son, Adam Smith, increasingly dominates the world we live in today. He attended Glasgow University and later held the chair of Moral Philosophy there from 1751 until 1764.
It may seem unlikely today that a Professor of Moral Philosophy could write the bible of modern capitalist economics, entitled: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, but Smith was profoundly interested in how money was made and what impact it had on society. Although he was stridently in favour of free trade, he wasn’t simply interested in a more efficient economy, but in the kind of society that free trade would create.

The Scotland which Smith lived in was undergoing massive structural change as it went through the Industrial Revolution. He could see that an increasingly commercial economy would transform a country into a new form of society bringing new rights and new forms of citizenship to the population. He embraced economic change, believing it would create a society where everyone was richer in real terms. However, he also had severe criticisms to make of those who worked to the detriment of society as a whole. He was especially critical of Glasgow’s tobacco lords, many of whom he knew personally, for their self-interested profiteering. Smith believed that society was advancing through various phases towards a truly great civilisation. He saw slavery as economically backward: a stage society had to go through in its evolution, although he didn’t see anything absolutely morally wrong with it. For Smith, economic progress meant societal progress.

Smith’s ideas were adopted by figures such as the Prime Minister, Pitt the Younger, and have remained central to British public life ever since. He also advocated an end to the American War of Independence, arguing that Britain would make more money through trading with America than reducing the country to servile obedience. Economic success was more important than territorial control and he formed part of the delegation which negotiated the peace with America. Just part of his lasting legacy to the modern world.

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