Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Hume on the human being
David Hume begins his Enquiry by saying that the human being has different interests. Man has an interest in philosophy, business, and other things as well. It should not be such that there is only one interest in mankind that takes the lead. But rather they should exist together in man. Man, who is composed of numerous interests, should not limit himself to just one of these. Even the philosopher who secludes himself from the rest of society is dependent on some form of other desires to live.
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4 comments:
I agree that we all have many desires. Is having many desires at one time, an inhibition of achieving our desires? Aristotle's theory of the good suggests a thing is good depending on it's capability of achieving it's end, so doesn't having multiple desires force us to push away some to make way for others? And Aristotle suggests there is a chief good that is above the others goods which we are ultimately trying to achieve, shouldn't we embrace this rather than having all these desires exist at once?
I believe you have good point that we should not desire and pursue just one thing that we should extend our desires to cover many topics
I always thought that those who are happiest are those who embrace the variety of life and maintain a healthy balance between all their interests in their lives. People should not put all of their eggs in one basket.
There is a balance in life. That is what Hume is trying to get at by saying this, and that's all. We need to achieve some sort of balance.
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