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David Hume's Views On Human Freedom And Free Will - College Paper

David Hume's Views On Human Freedom And Free Will

In David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; Hume gives the name of liberty to the idea of human free will. "By liberty, then, we can only mean a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will; that is, if we choose to remain at rest, we may; if we choose to move, we also may" (Hume p.63). Hume believes free will to be unpredictable. He does not accept the idea of absolute free will, although he does not believe a Deity determines all our actions.
There are two classifications of actions, those, which are premeditated and those, which are spur of the moment. Free will can be hazardous because it allows us to commit spur of the moment actions, ...

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equal in every human. Causation in our nature arises almost entirely from uniformity. It should not be expected that because of this uniformity that all humans would act exactly the same in the same circumstances. An allowance must be made for, "the diversity of character, prejudices, and opinions" (Hume p.57). All humans have the same limitations, and in this way humanity's liberty is limited by uniformity.
There are reasons given why the creator does not determine human actions. If the Deity had all power over actions, there would be no reason to create impious actions. Also if the Deity did create evil actions we, "must acknowledge him to be the ultimate author of guilt and moral turpitude in all his creatures" (Hume p.67). It is evident that Hume does not conclude that specific evils could have been pre-determined by the creator.
If it were anything but human reason that drove our actions, than there could be no crimes. The superior being when these acts were created ...

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 7/30/2008 12:36:53 PM
Category: English
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 474
Pages: 2

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