Seyed Mohammad Hossein Tabatabai and David Hume in the philosophical basis for determining the values

• Main Authors: Mahdi Dehbashi, Mohammad Javad Movahedi
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Isfahan 2013-08-01
• Series: Comparative Theology
• Online Access: http://coth.ui.ac.ir/article_15725_1e8c5dd6dedc32e61bfd714327c54def.pdf

allameh sayyid muhammad husain tabatabaei and David Hume, in regard to influential philosophical thought's, are very important, one in the Muslim world and The other in the West world. Allama has mentioned his thoughts on ethics, in his two books, the principles of philosophy and Method of realism and Al-Mizan interpretation (Quranic exegesis). In The principles of philosophy and Method of realism, his main discussions are actions that export from agent and the relationship between agent and action. In the sixth chapter of the book, Allama generally analyzes mental aspects, and in particular, examines the psychophilosophical analysis and epistemology of the moral concepts. In terms of epistemology, ethics is one of the perceptions of mental aspects, and according to Allama, humans naturally can distinct right from wrong and take steps towards goodness and happiness. The second psychophilosophical aspect of ethics is related to good moral qualities and spiritual positive properties. As was stated before, humans, by nature, are equipped with the ability to recognize right and wrong; so it can be concluded in the issue of good moral qualities and spiritual positive properties, that virtues and vices are in the form of spiritual positive properties and that actualized in regard to need of Physical actions, and accordingly, humans are forced to take action. Allama in epistemological discussions and how human can obtain the knowledge has analyzed the agency of human and relationship between the agent and the action with the aim of demonstrating the role of reason and perceptions in all levels of human life as central and substantial. Hume at the beginning of the third book, a treatise on human nature, stated that "Morality is a subject that interests us above all others"; He spoke of the importance of this field of philosophy. You can even ponder and reflect on the previous parts of the book so that the introductions of a scheme of ethics are discussed. Hume's moral philosophy can be considered as "virtue-based ethics". The main concepts of his ethical theory are such as Behavior, virtues and vices, and not a duty, maxims and obligation. The salient feature of Hume's moral theory is the emphasis upon moral sense according which we discern vicious and virtuous behavior. Consequently, according to Taylor, "Hume's ethics can be contrasted with other forms of virtue-based ethics, such as Aristotelian ethics." In Aristotelian virtue ethics, the focus is on the virtuous agent, and to investigate how people can be involved in the acquisition of virtues and deals with the role of virtue in having a good and calm life; whereas Hume is merely deals with diagnoses and assess the treatment. Most of his work is behavior cognition, and partly psychological and is based on an act-centered attitude. His attitude of moral knowledge based on good and bad behaviors of people is distinguished and evaluated on the context of society and the dialogue and discussion. In other words, evaluation and recognition of the moral norms of virtues- or vices-based is a social practice and the social conditions make it clear. Accordingly, Hume argues that "passions as hate, anger, respect, love, courage, pain and pleasure, all of them bring from the communication with others within the community and not from my natural mood." As a result, one can say that the Allameh Tabatabai argues that human, by nature, has the ability to distinguish right from wrong, and therefore, there are virtues and vices in the form of spiritual positive properties and that actualized in regard to need of Physical actions, and accordingly, humans are forced to take action.  Then, human with using the power of "wisdom", can distinguish between virtues and vices. However, Hume explicitly does not consider distinguishing between good and evil as the act of reason, but of "moral sense", and According to him, "reason is the slave of the passions".