Hume's Humanity and the Protection of the Vulnerable

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Opublikowane: 2015-06-19
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.44.2015.770
Słowa kluczowe:
David Hume, humanity, justice, vulnerability, protection of the vulnerable

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Ivana Zagorac
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Abstrakt

It is well known that Hume excluded inferior rational beings, who are incapable of resistance and weak resentment, from his concept of justice. This resulted in a critique of Hume’s theory of justice, as it would not protect those who were the most vulnerable against ill treatment. The typical answer to this critique is that Hume excluded inferior rational beings from the concept of justice, but not from that of morality, and that he considered their protection to be the task of humanity. The subject of this text is the range of Hume’s humanity. What manner of protection does Hume’s humanity truly offer? Despite the conclusion that this manner of protection of the vulnerable is insufficient, Hume’s humanity contains valuable characteristics worthy of re-evaluation in modern debate — both on the limits of humanity and on the conditions and models of protecting the vulnerable.

Article Details

Numer

Nr 44 (2015)

Dział

Special Topic - Justice and Compassion – Hume’s Moral Philosophy and Contemporary Practical Ethics

Teksty zaproponowane do naszego czasopisma nie powinny być nigdzie publikowane przed ukazaniem się w „Diametros”. Wraz z przesłaniem swojego utworu redakcji autor akceptuje, że w momencie zakwalifikowania tekstu do publikacji czasopismo „Diametros” będzie stosowało licencję the Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Na podstawie tej licencji autorzy zgadzają się, że ich prace mogą być zgodnie z prawem ponownie wykorzystywane do jakichkolwiek celów bez konieczności uzyskania uprzedniej zgody ze strony autora lub wydawcy. Każdy może prace te czytać, pobierać, kopiować, drukować, rozpowszechniać oraz przetwarzać, pod warunkiem poprawnego oznaczenia autorstwa oraz oryginalnego miejsca publikacji. Autorzy zachowują prawa autorskie do swoich utworów bez żadnych innych ograniczeń. Pełna informacja na temat licencji CC BY: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.

Biogram autora

Ivana Zagorac - University of Zagreb

Ivana Zagorac, PhD (Assistant Professor)

Primary institution: Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia (I. Lučića 3, HR–10000 Zagreb)

Secondary institution: Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany (Malakowturm, Markstrasse 258a, DE–44799 Bochum)

E-mail: izagorac@ffzg.hr

Acknowledgments: This research was supported under Marie Curie Newfelpro funding scheme for the project CONVINce-ME (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-COFUND program; Government of the Republic of Croatia and the Ministry of Science, Education and Sport). Author is a CONVINce-ME project manager and a research fellow at the Institute for Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, Ruhr University Bochum.

Jak cytować

„Hume’s Humanity and the Protection of the Vulnerable”. 2015. Diametros, nr 44 (czerwiec): 189-203. https://doi.org/10.13153/diam.44.2015.770.

Bibliografia

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