Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hume on Morality (review)

Hume Studies Volume 27, Number 2, November 2001, pp. 342-344 JAMES BAILLIE. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hume on Morality. Routledge: London, 2000. Pp. 226. ISBN 0-415-180484, cloth, $60. ISBN 0-415-18049-X, paper, $14.95. Hume on Morality will appeal, I assume, to two types of readers: (i) those who are interested primarily in Hume, and seek to broaden their understanding of his philosophy by discovering what he has to say about morality; and (ii) those who are interested primarily in morality, and wish to deepen their knowledge of this by finding out what Hume thought about the subject. I doubt that either type will find James Baillie's book entirely satisfactory, in spite of its undoubted merits; in what follows I'll attempt to ground such doubts, giving an indication of the content of Baillie's text as I progress. At the beginning of chapter 2, after an introduction including a brief historical background, a basic outline of Hume's methods and aims, and a short account of Hutcheson's moral sense theory, Baillie writes that "Hume is an extremely systematic philosopher, such that no part of his philosophy can be understood apart from the whole. It follows that this book does not only concern 'Hume on morality.' It is about Hume's philosophy, but with an emphasis on his moral theory" (19). Chapters 2, 3, and 4 then serve to present and interpret Hume's views from the Treatise and first Enquiry on ideas and impressions, causation, physical and mental substance, direct and indirect passions, personal identity, freedom, motivation, reason and the will. Baillie's treatment of these issues is impressively clear, and his take on Hume is both sympathetic and rigorous, indicating common misconceptions of Hume whilst pointing out where the views need qualification. In all this he serves the introductory reader well. My first worry is, however, that a hundred or more pages seems too long to wait before encountering, in any detail, Hume's thoughts on moral matters. Now this would be of concern even if it were made patently clear throughout the first four chapters how these topics bear on Hume's moral philosophy; as it turns out, the wait seems much longer, given that the relevance of these issues to Hume's moral views is seldom made clear at all. Introductory readers, whether familiar or unfamiliar with Hume's thoughts on mental substance et al., are too often left to wonder what exactly these subjects have to do with morality. To illustrate, Baillie spends pages 24-31 discussing Hume's views on causation , and pages 73-85 discussing causation in light of Hume's ideas on freedom and religion; but the relation of causation to morality is mentioned only in passing on 83, where we're told that for Hume, "causal necessity, correctly Hume Studies Book Reviews 343 understood, is a prerequisite for moral accountability." And that's it as far as causation and moral philosophy goes. Those interested in Hume's views on morality might very well wonder whether this is sufficient payoff for the detailed discussion of other themes. More generally, they might wonder whether three chapters out of seven marks sufficient emphasis on Hume's moral theory. Turning, now, to these three chapters, "Against Moral Rationalism," "The Virtues," and "The Moral Stance." Here Baillie discusses, again with admirable clarity, Hume's moral philosophy as elaborated in the Treatise, second Enquiry, and the essay "Of the Standard of Taste," covering topics such as moral rationalism, the gap between "is" and "ought," moral sentiments, justice , sympathy, and the standards of taste and morals; and once more those approaching Hume's texts for the first time will find Baillie's text a valuable aid. One of his major concerns here is, moreover, to argue that Hume is much less skeptical than traditionally interpreted, and in fact regarded himself as putting morality on a solid foundation; and he does a fine job in supporting this line by carefully distinguishing Hume's position from varieties of subjectivism and expressivism. Equally impressive are the detailed accounts of Hume's attacks on egoism, and of his treatment of the nature and origin of...