Thursday, August 11, 2022

What is Hume's Theory?

What is Hume's Theory?

What is hume's theory? Do you know about hume's theory? This article lets you know what it is. In ethics, Hume's position is based on his empiricist theory of the mind. It is famous for asserting four theses—

  • The reason is not a motive to the will; instead, it is the "slave of the passions." 
  • Moral distinctions are not derived from reason. 
  • These are derived from moral sentiments. 
  • Vices & virtues are natural, but justice and others are artificial.

He defends these within his ethic of virtue and vice. His major ethical writings are Book 3 of his Treatise of Human Nature, "Of Morals", etc. "Of Morals" is based on Book 2, "Of the Passions". Besides, he wrote the Principles of Morals and some Essays. The moral Enquiry is responsible for recasting central ideas from the moral part of the Treatise in a more accessible style. But you can find major differences.

What is Hume's theory and what are the issues from his Predecessors:

He inherits some controversies from his predecessors about ethics and political philosophy. However, a question arises from moral epistemology how do people believe in moral good and evil? How does a human being acquire right and wrong knowledge, duty and obligation?

According to the Ethical theorists and theologians of the day, moral good and evil are considered to be good or bad by Hobbes, Locke, Clarke, etc. Divine revelation and conscience are also some of the reasons.

He said that people had gained awareness of moral good and evil when they experienced the happiness of approval and the uneasiness of disapproval. In addition, he also maintains against the rationalists that reason alone is not enough to yield a judgment. It is because reason is required to find the facts of any concrete situation. Besides, the reason also needs practice over time or the social impact of a character trait. The facts must trigger a response in the last analysis by sentiment or taste.

You might get a related controversy that is more metaphysical, i.e. which one is the source or foundation of moral norms? Which one is the ground of moral obligation? Clarke, the moral rationalist of the period, says that moral standards are the needs of reason. Samuel Pufendorf was one of the Divine voluntarists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He claimed that moral obligation or requirement is the product of God's will. Shaftesbury and Hutcheson, moral sense theorists, and Butler see all need to pursue goodness and avoid evil. It is designed uniquely so that a feature of consciousness can evaluate the rest. He sides with the moral sense theorists on this question. The reason is that people are such creatures who feel pain and pleasure with their dispositions. Moral needs bind them.

Do moral requirements are natural or conventional? 

A question arises that you can face. Hobbes and Mandeville can find them as conventional. Besides, Shaftesbury, Hutcheson, Locke, and others think it is natural. He mocks Mandeville's contention. Concepts of vice and virtue are foisted on people by scheming politicians who want to manage people easily. But if nothing is in your experience and no sentiments are there to create the concept of virtue, no lavish praise of heroes might create it.

Therefore, if you think in a way, moral requirements have a natural origin. However, he thinks that natural human impulses and dispositions cannot face the virtue of justice. It is a proper analysis of the virtue which can reveal to humankind. It has made property rules and promises cooperatively. In this way, he takes an intermediate position where a few virtues are natural, and a few of them are the products of the convention.

Linked with the meta-ethical controversies represents the understanding of the ethical life like the earlier people do for the virtues and vices of character or like the "moderns" do for the principles of duty or natural law. A thinker like Hobbes offers a good deal to say about virtue. In addition, the ethical writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries provided a governed law understanding of morals. It can offer priority to natural laws or principles of duty.

What is the exception case hence is the moral sense school. It can advocate an analysis of the moral life of the Greek and Hellenistic thinkers for the settled traits of character. However, they can find a location for principles in their ethics. He favours an ethic of character with "ancient" lines. Even he forces on a role for rules of duty within artificial virtues domain.

His predecessors opposed whether human nature was essentially selfish or benevolent. There are a few people who are discussing or arguing that self-interested motives are something that dominates man. These motives are for moral requirements to govern people so that they serve interests similarly. On the flip side, some people argue that uncorrupted people usually care about the weal and woe of others. As a result, morality plays a major role hence. He also criticizes Hobbes for his insistence on psychological egoism and dismal, violent picture of a state of nature.

He can resist the view of Hutcheson that it is possible to decrease all moral principles to benevolence. The reason is that there is a doubt on his mind regarding benevolence. It is that benevolence can overcome our normal acquisitiveness. As per Hume's observation, people are selfish and humane. He also said that people have greed and limited generosity. It is the disposition to kindness and liberality. These are directed strongly toward kin and friends.

Conclusion:

Hume thinks that the condition of humankind is not a war for organized society. Besides, it is a law-governed and highly cooperative domain. You can find it a hypothetical condition where people generally care for their friends and cooperate with them. But self-interest and preference for friends over strangers might make any wider cooperation impossible. The thesis of Hume, based on empiric, says that people are loving and parochial. It also indicates that people are selfish creatures underlying his political philosophy.

Tuesday, August 2, 2022

Mary Celeste - History Mystery

Mary Celeste

Mary Celeste is denoted as Marie Celeste. It was an American merchant brigantine founded adrift in the Atlantic Ocean off the Azores Islands on December 4, 1872. On the very next day, the British brig Dei Gratia saw a ship while sailing through rough weather. During that time, the ship was drifting through the Atlantic near the Azores Islands, about 1,000 miles west of Portugal.

While he boarded the ship, they saw that almost everything was in perfect order, with the crew's clothes neatly packed away. However, they didn't find any people. A disassembled pump with a missing lifeboat indicated that there were not sufficient people. She found her in a seaworthy condition with a lifeboat missing. According to the information, her last entry in the log was dated ten days earlier. Later, she left New York City for Genoa on November 7. It was found that her cargo of alcohol was intact. In addition, the goods of the crew and captain were undisturbed.

Ship Mary Celeste: 

Tonnage: 198.42 gross tons as built-in 1861, 282.28 gross tons after rebuild in 1872

Length: 99.3 ft (30.3 m) as built, 103 ft (31 m) after rebuild

Beam: 22.5 ft (6.9 m) as made, 25.7 ft (7.8 m) after rebuild

Depth: 11.7 ft (3.6 m) as made, 16.2 ft (4.9 m) after rebuild

Decks: 1, as built, two after rebuild

Sail plan: Brigantine

The ship was made in Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia. In 1861, it was launched under British registration as Amazon. But after seven years, on 1868, she was transferred to American ownership. Later, at that time, she got her new name. After that, she sailed without any reason until her 1872 voyage.

After her recovery, the court's officers considered different foul play like mutiny by Mary Celeste's crew, piracy by the Dei Gratia crew, etc.

The Discovery Of The Mary Celeste Ship:

On November 7, 1872, Captain Benjamin Briggs and the crew left the New York Harbor for Genoa, Italy. During the time, he came with seven chosen crews with his wife and daughter. It fought its way through treacherous seas and winds for fourteen days after leaving the town. The captain entered on November 25. People assumed it was the last entry in the log. However, nothing was amiss during that time.

But as soon as the Dei Gratia found the ship on December 5, no one was there. He saw three and a half feet of water in the bilge while boarding the Ghost ship. Bilge means the lowest ship point sitting under the waterline. Although the cargo was intact, a few barrels were empty. As the Ghost ship was seaworthy, the crew of the Dei Gratia split up. Then, these two ships sailed to Gibraltar.

The Mystery Theories about The Ghost Ship :

The ship was seaworthy, for which the crew abandoned the ship. However, six months of water and food were abroad. Besides, the necessary goods for the crew were stowed away. The captain can only abandon the ship in the direst circumstances, which didn't appear threatening. Therefore, it was still a mystery for more than a century and a half.

According to a few people, the crew took alcohol and mutinies. But we have not got any proof of violence. A few people thought that pirates might have raided the ship. But it was not true as valuable belongings were completely safe.

Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a short story where he mentioned an ex-slave who captured the ship. But his existence was also not available. Sea monsters and waterspouts were under doubt also.

Although there were several theories, no proof matched them. Amongst the theories, the most plausible theory was that the alcohol's vapors had blown the hatch cover off. As a result, the crew got frightened and abandoned the ship. But this hatch cover was tightened with proper security. So no foul play was at the root of the matter. While these two ships came to Gibraltar, the Dei Gratia submitted its salvage claim. After that, the admiralty court suspected foul play. But they could not get any proof after investigating for three months.

However, later the crew received payment. But it was one-sixth of the total $46,000 value of the ship. In addition, the authorities did not get a conviction of their innocent.

What is the real truth About The Infamous Ghost Ship?

It was 1884 when Arthur Conan Doyle wrote J. Habakuk Jephson's Statement, a short story depending on the tale of the ship. People started investigating the ship for publicity from the short story. However, people were unable to find new revelations.

In 2002, documentarian Anne MacGregor started investigating. First, she rebuilt the ship's drift with the help of different modern ways. Besides, she deduced that the captain used the wrong chronometer. According to the reports, the vessel was 120 miles west of its original location. As a result, the captain wanted to sight land three days before. After that, he altered course towards Santa Maria Island in the Azores. Then, he searched for shelter to save him from the relentless weather.

MacGregor understood that as the ship was refitted, dust & debris clogged the pumps. As a result, it removed the water to prevent it from turning into a seaworthy ship's bilge. In addition, the pumps were not working, so there was no way to remove the water. That is why the ship could not make its route into the ship's bilge.

It is one of the reasons why Captain Briggs wanted to keep the ship near any land as much as possible. But the crew didn't support him. Instead, they abandoned the ship to save themselves.

The bottom line:

The theory of MacGregor is not acceptable or provable. However, it can give us a summary, at least with the proof of disassembled pump. You will not find other theories. After 130 years of the crew's eerie vanishing, the ship's mystery will be solved. You can read about the creepiest ghost ships to know their history. In addition, you can reveal the truth about the Flying Dutchman, the most famous ghost ship.

Frequently Asked Questions:

  • Q. Is Mary Celeste a true story?

It will premiere on November 4 on the Smithsonian Channel on high-definition DirecTV.

  • Q. Did they ever find the crew of the Mary Celeste?

Although the crew and passengers were missing, they hadn't taken food and water. Captain Morehouse said that the crew of Dei Gratia got the ship in stable condition.

  • Q. How many people disappeared from the Mary Celeste?

The missing of 10 people remains a mystery.