Humeans

Humeans about laws believe that what laws there are is a matter of what patterns are there to be discerned in the overall mosaic of events that happen in the history of the world.

Causal Determinism

As with the Humeans, this does not mean that concerns about human free action are automatically resolved; instead, they must be addressed afresh in the light of whatever account of physical nature without laws is put forward.

Causal Determinism

The foregoing discussion does not, of course, cover every argument that has been offered in the longstanding debate between Humeans and anti-Humeans, just a few of the ones that philosophers have evidently found most persuasive.

Moral Motivation

Humeans often took this distinction between beliefs and desires not only to imply that beliefs alone cannot motivate action, but also that desires are not open to similar rational criticism as beliefs.

Preferences

Yet Humeans would insist that there is nothing straightforward about attempts to explain moral motivation and action in terms of beliefs; just recall the argument for Humeanism based on differences in

Moral Motivation

On the positive side, Anti-Humeans sometimes appeal to the phenomenology of moral motivation, arguing that it supports their view.

Moral Motivation

Precisely how and under what conditions moral belief can itself motivate is a matter of dispute among anti-Humeans.

Moral Motivation

Russell, and Humeans in general, take it for granted that all perceptions, being distinct “may be conceiv'd as separately existent, and may exist separately, without any contradiction or absurdity.”

Neutral Monism

The number of non-Humeans about laws and the number of self-proclaimed naturalists were also surprising.

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Therefore, Humeans conclude, preferences can only be criticised if they are extrinsic ” i.e. are instrumentally derived from other preferences on the basis of beliefs ” or inconsistent.

Preferences