In the moral argument, God's justice is used to show that there is an afterlife. In paragraph 10 Hume suggests that God's justice would really require the exact opposite: that there isn't an afterlife. A just god would only have designed our minds and passions to be the way they are if there is no afterlife.
Doing otherwise would be cruel and deceptive. It would be unfair on Don Giovanni and the rest of us to be held so much to account for our God-given inclination to act as if there is no afterlife. The second version of the inference paragraph 11 starts with the same assumption — that we are ill-equipped for an eternal existence — and reaches the same conclusion — that there is no afterlife — but it does so via a different route.
This is an observably true generalisation, showing up once again Hume's empiricist leanings. Hares have no capacity to appreciate opera, but such appreciation would be superfluous to the requirements of a life as a hare.
The existence of an afterlife would be in violation of this observable truth, since the task of preparing for this afterlife would far outstrip our ability to carry it out effectively — something shown once again by the recklessness of Don Giovanni. This did not stop him being — as we would put it today — sexist in his writing. You will find evidence of this in the second half of paragraph He attempts to draw out still further the significance of the fact that abilities are generally suited to requirements.
Women are less able than men, he asserts. This can only be because the demands placed on women are lower than those placed on men. An inequality of skills between the sexes is to be expected if the only life is this life, since women are well suited to the less onerous domestic sphere.
But an inequality of skills makes no sense if both sexes have the same task to perform: to prepare for eternity. Read paragraphs 9— Does the sexism of Hume's remark, noted above, undermine this second objection to the moral argument? In my opinion it does not. Here are my two reasons. First, the expression of sexism may affect our assessment of Hume as a likeable fellow, but his likeability is entirely irrelevant to the quality of his arguments.
Second, though Hume asserts that women are suited to the domestic sphere but otherwise less able than men, these assertions are not essential to his argument about capacities in nature matching the demands placed on them. They are merely part of a misguided effort to extend his argument. So the fact that these assertions are I would argue mistaken leaves his objection to the moral argument more or less intact.
In the remainder of section II paragraphs 12—17 , Hume presents the third and final objection to the moral argument.
He proposes in paragraph 12 that we be guided by our conception of justice, not the imagined preferences of a deity, when we make judgements about what would count as appropriate punishment or reward. His point is simply that our conception is the only one we have. If God's conception of punishment is different from ours, then all bets are off since we would be ignorant of what that conception is.
He makes the same point later paragraph 17 :. To suppose measures of approbation and blame different from the human confounds every thing. Whence do we learn that there is such a thing as moral distinctions, but from our own sentiments? Again and again, Hume reminds us that we must assess God's justness by our own lights or, as he often puts it, by the lights of our own sentiments. To do otherwise — to say that God's ways are a mystery — is to abandon the perspective of natural religion and move to mysticism. Mysticism is, if anything, even worse than revealed religion in Hume's eyes.
In paragraphs 13—16 he presents four features of just punishment i. In the next exercise you are asked to extract these four features. Read paragraphs 12— In paragraphs 13—16, what are four features of punishment and reward that, according to our sentiments, speak against the existence of an afterlife as conceived in the Christian tradition, according to Hume?
Warning: paragraph 13 is quite elliptical and possibly confused; you may wish to come to it last. Paragraph the Christian virtue of unconditional love for one's God and neighbours is not the only virtue there is. There is also value in being a good poet or brave soldier. Yet it would be contrary to common sense to suppose that good poets or brave soldiers have their own special kinds of heaven.
Paragraph punishment should serve a purpose; no purpose is served by punishing people after they have left this life. Paragraph punishment should be kept in proportion. Eternal damnation can never be in proportion to an offence committed in the present life. Paragraph punishment in the Christian tradition divides everyone up into the good and the bad without distinguishing degrees of desert within each group. In Dante's Inferno part of the Divine Comedy, c. In the seventh circle they meet Capaneus, who boasted in his mortal life that even the great God Jove could not defeat him in war.
Hume claims paragraph 15 that, according to our ordinary sentiments, an eternity of extreme pain is an overly harsh punishment for most human sins. Classical allusions aside, paragraph 17 is mostly repetition, but in its closing sentence Hume notes a final aspect of our ordinary attitude towards punishment.
We do not punish people if they are not responsible for their actions. The death of infants is, he thinks, an especially vivid illustration of why the moral argument fails. Making the decision to study can be a big step, which is why you'll want a trusted University. Take a look at all Open University courses.
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That you do not work or learn as efficiently should you not get enough sleep, so staying up far too late to examine might be counterproductive. Capital punishment is inhumane and kills both the guilty and innocent. The death penalty promotes murder, contrary to its purpose, and should be outlawed. The death penalty is immoral and barbaric My purpose here, then, is always to make sense of last and create it on the university because i have started to view it myself.
Aristotle is against capital punishment, while Mill believes it is morally permissible.
Let me start off with Aristotle.