作业帮 > 英语 > 作业

What is Hume’s argument for the thesis that animals are rati

来源:学生作业帮 编辑:作业帮 分类:英语作业 时间:2024/07/08 01:08:29
What is Hume’s argument for the thesis that animals are rational?In your view,does Hume successfully refute Aristotle’s definition of the human being as a ‘rational animal’?Why or why not?
In Hume's view,humans are able to conduct rational thinking,but that is limited by our emotinal irrationality.This is an argument against Aristotle’s definition of the human being as a ‘rational animal'.
In "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding",Hume distinguishes "impression" and "ideas".To a broader sense,impressions are irrationality based on human emotion,and "idea"can be interpreted as ratinality.He then,argues that ideas are always copies of impressions.Thus,rationality is dominated and is surborninate to irrationality.
He also argues,that "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."(Of the influencing motives of the will) This again,reinforced his previously mentioned thesis against the idea that humans are rational.
Thus,even though Hume has successfully argued against divine right and introduced practical reasoning,he considers the argument that humans are irrational be to incomplete,since humans' rationality is dominated by irrationality.