Hume assumes that murder is a representative case of “viciousness.
Identify unspoken assumptions. Hume assumes that murder is a representative case of “viciousness.” He also assumes that if there were “viciousness” in the “object” (the murder), we would be able to “see” it—it isn’t somehow hidden from us. Depending on how important you think these assumptions are, you may want to make them explicit in your reconstruction.
Step 6: Sketch out a formal reconstruction of the argument as a series of steps.
1. If we examine a vicious action like murder, we see passions, motives, volitions, and thoughts.
2. We don’t see anything else.
3. So we don’t see any property or “matter of fact” called “viciousness.”
4. Assumption: What we don’t see is not there.
5. When we examine our feelings about murder, we see a “sentiment of disapprobation.”
6. Unstated premise: This feeling of disapprobation is the only thing all the acts we think are vicious have in common, and we feel it whenever we confront a vicious act—that is, all and only vicious acts produce the feeling of disapprobation.
7. Conclusion: So the viciousness of a bad action is a feeling of disapprobation in the person who considers it, not a factual property of the action itself.
Sample Solution
Because of the great range of agricultural systems used around the world, the environmental impact of meat production varies. All farming practices have been discovered to have a variety of environmental repercussions. Pollution from fossil fuel use, animal methane, effluent waste, and water and land consumption are some of the environmental problems linked with meat production. Organic farming, free range farming, intensive animal production, subsistence agriculture, hunting, and fishing are only some of the methods used to obtain meat. Animal products have a higher nutritional value and have a lower environmental impact than agriculture as a whole.
Meat is thought to be one of the main contributors to the present biodiversity crisis.
