Blog 17

One of Hume’s main arguments is that humans are more alike than we believe. If you look all across different races and different countries there is a very good chance that we have something or many things in common. A quote from the article states, “The same motives always produce the same actions: The same events follow from the same causes. Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship, generosity, public spirit: these passions, mixed in various degrees, and distributed through society, have been, from the beginning of the world, and still are, the source of all the actions and enterprises, which have ever been observed among mankind.” This quote was particularly interesting to me because it shows emotions that are prevalent in all or most humans. I can almost guarantee if you visit different cultures and countries they most likely will have more similarities than differences. Hume also stated,”  Mankind are so much the same, in all times and places, that history intorms us of nothing new or strange in this particular. Its chief use is only to discover the constant and universal principles of human nature, by showing men in all varieties of circumstances and situations, and furnishing us with materials from which we may form our observations and become acquainted with the regular springs of human action and behaviour. These records or wars, intrigues, factions, and revolutions, are so many collections of experiments, by which the politician or moral philosopher fixes the principles of his science, in the same manner as the physician or natural philosopher becomes acquainted with the nature of plants, minerals, and other external objects, by the experiments which he forms concerning them.” I found this interesting because he makes a point that mankind is put in different circumstances and situations but most likely most humans would act very similarly if they were put in those situations. However, I do not particularly like the idea that “humans are not responsible for their actions.” I believe that would lead humans down a rabbit hole in which nobody would take responsibility for their actions. I would feel very differently about my life if I knew I had no control over it. I would think it would lead to less stress because a path has already been laid out for you and you ultimately have no decision making power. There would be no excitement in life if everything was predetermined and everybody had their lives planned out, it would take away from the uncertainty that everyday life brings us.