Hume on practical reasoning (Treatise 463-469)

The claim that " 'is' does not entail 'ought'" is so closely associated with Hume that it has been called 'Hume's Law'.1 The interpretation of the passage in Hume's Treatise of Human Nature that is the locus classicus of the claim is controversial. But the passage is preceded by three main bodies of argument, and, on the working assumption that the passage in question is closely connected to the argumentation that leads up to it, I will here examine the third of these, running from T 463:7 to 469:18.2 While interpretations have differed from one another, they have agreed in attributing to Hume uncharacteristically weak arguments.