Comunidade moral em David Hume

Abstract

Our research have the principal purpose to understand, in the philosophic work of David Hume, the structure of the considerations about the space where people communicate their emotions in society, and build the considerations about the rules of social conduct. We take as our starting point the author's efforts to "introduce the experimental method of reasoning into moral subjects". This sub-title, insistently present in the three books that composes the Treatise of Human Nature, seems to be the main clue for understanding the intention of his work. So, we seek reading these issues on the Understanding, the Passions and Morality, as a web of argument in which each part is closely connected to the others. In considering the entirety of his work, this research on the cognitive processes of the self will provide the necessary basis for the structuring of moral issues. However, we found some difficulties, especially when we´re faced with the section devoted to understanding, so, the Hume´s radical critique deposited by the knowledge domains appear to fall into the deep abyss of skepticism. Thus, our project begins by recognizing how the Hume´s critical epistemology enables us to find a free land for the building of the considerations that concern about the moral and civil society. So, we find the necessary conditions to understand the dimensions occupied by morality in human nature, and how policy is necessary for the survival of this nature. The humean´s refusal about absolute considerations is also present in the author's refusal to contractarian theory, and in the very idea that governments are founded on divine´s benevolence. It is the opinion that underlies all the authority of rulers over the governed. We intend, therefore, recognize in this space, where imagination seems always to decide the social games, a ground solid enough to build these moral considerations.