Moral Distinctions Not Derived from Reason

Morality for Hume was not a universal concept, but a human construct founded on reason and human sentiment. The fact that individuals dispute whether an action is right or wrong and use a rational form of discussion to reach a conclusion is strong proof in favor of morality being founded on reason. However, humans also have feelings of approval or disapproval concerning these actions, which provides evidence that sentiment is also part of the human …

…Hume's moral theory is for the most part a descriptive psychological account of the phenomenon of moral approval. His account contains a number of intricately connected features, such as virtues, pleasure, agreeability and sympathy. An individual may believe that all morality is guided entirely by emotion, not reason, but may believe that there is an objective, universal moral code that applies to everyone, and in this case, emotional responses to actions would also be universal.