Hume on Virtue, Beauty, Composites, and Secondary Qualities

Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 71 (2):103-118 (1990)
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Abstract

Hume’s account of virtue (and beauty) entails that distinct things--a quality in the contemplated and a perception in the contemplator--are the same thing--a given virtue. I show this inconsistency is consistent with his intent. A virtue is a composite of quality and perception, and for Hume a composite is distinct things--the parts--falsely supposed to be a single thing. False or unsubstantiated supposition is for Hume the basis of most of our beliefs. I end with an argument that for Hume secondary qualities are composites, not powers.

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Author's Profile

Donald L. M. Baxter
University of Connecticut

Citations of this work

Hume on the Unity of Determinations of Extension.Jani Hakkarainen - 2019 - History of Philosophy & Logical Analysis 22 (1):219–233.
Hume on Qualities.Phillip D. Cummins - 1996 - Hume Studies 22 (1):49-88.
Hume's aesthetic psychology of distance, greatness and the sublime.Dale Jacquette - 1995 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 3 (1):89 – 112.

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References found in this work

Of the standard of taste.David Hume - 1875 - In Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary. Indianapolis: Liberty Press. pp. 226-249.

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