To live in society people must be able to infer the actions of others from their motives and characters.
Similarly, unless we were able to infer character from action no one could be held responsible and morality would be impossible.
To understand the basis of this claim we need to get a clearer picture of what it is to be held responsible on Hume’s account – a picture that is very different from the forward-looking, utilitarian-oriented view suggested by the classical interpretation. Holding a person responsible is, for Hume, a matter of regarding a person as an object of the moral sentiments of approval and disapproval.
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