Humean Nature

de Neil Sinhababu

"Neil Sinhababu defends the Humean Theory of Motivation, according to which desire drives all human action and practical reasoning. Desire motivates us to pursue its object. It makes thoughts of its object pleasant or unpleasant. It focuses attention on its object. Its effects are amplified by vivid representations of its object. These aspects of desire explain why motivation usually accompanies moral belief, how intentions shape our planning, how we exercise willpower, what human selves are, how action can express emotion, why we procrastinate, and how we daydream. Some philosophers claim that the Humean Theory can't explain such phenomena. In fact, it provides better explanations than rival theories can. The Humean Theory has revolutionary consequences for ethics. It shows that currently popular theories leave humans incapable of making moral judgments, and suggests an alternative that upholds moral objectivity while explaining moral concepts in terms of our feelings."--