ABSTRACT
I argue that Hume's moral philosophy is, basically, realist in that the "peculiar" sentiments constituting morality, the moral forms of pain and pleasure in the contemplation of actions, sentiments and characters are based on our sensibility as it reveals the brute realities of pain and pleasure. I argue that the place of pride Hume gives to the "practicality" of morals is not primarily in the service of the explanation of the moral phenomenon, it concerns rather the realist grounding of morality in the human sentiments: what we feel in regard to other human beings. In spite of the implications to the traditional discussion about Hume's morals ontology, my analysis aims to show that such a grounding answers, in tandem with the empiricist commitments of Hume's philosophy, the previous question about what is real when what concerns us are the practical interests of our lives, not merely the theoretical ones.
Keywords:
Hume's philosophy of morals; Motivation; Realism; Moral sentiment