Passion as a criterion for moral judgment Ethics is the study of human conduct or in other words the study of moral behavior. All human beings use ethics in their daily actions and decisions, but not many have the opportunity to probe the core of ethics. When Socrates said in 399 BC, "The inexplicable life is not worth living," he was encouraging man to examine his way of life and ways of making moral decisions. Ethics does not only aim to discover the rules that should govern a moral life, but the goods that one should aim to acquire in the course of one's life. Ethics aims to explain why and how man acts in a certain way and to shape the way man lives and acts. Some philosophers say that reason is the criterion for making moral judgments, others say that duty and obligation govern moral decisions. The eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume provided a different view of what causes humans to act in certain ways. Hume takes an almost Epicurean position and proclaims that man's passions prevail over reason and direct man's actions and moral judgments. Moral judgments are manifestations of human feelings and passions. Hume claims that the passions are the only way to understand morality. The nature of moral values ​​must be discovered through the passions. Hume rejects reason as the criterion for moral judgments and bases most of his “Treatise on Human Nature” on refuting reason as the basis for moral actions. Hume strongly opposes the idea that moral judgments are the conclusion of reason. The role of reason in relation to moral judgments must be only in relation to the passions. Reason must be the slave of man's passions. Reason must help man find his moral obligations and duties, but reason does not produce or act on the basis of moral obligation or duty; man's passions motivate action. Passion is the criterion for all moral judgments because there are no absolute moral values. Moral values ​​differ from person to person because they are based on human experience. For every man there are passions and moral judgments. You cannot tell another that what they feel is wrong or unreasonable. It is a personal experience and no one can judge your feelings or feelings. Since reason is the discovery of truth or falsehood, reason cannot be at the center of experience and without regard to the situation contradicts Hume's experimental/situational approach to the passions governing morality. decisions. Hume's idea of ​​passions depends greatly on man's previous life experiences. Kant believes that happiness and being moral are not the same thing. Hume would argue that man may have a duty to be happy, but the degree to which we are happy cannot be morally judged. It is not true that the happier you are, the more moral you are. Hume argued in his Treatise that reason does not influence the will, but Kant says that reason influences the will, but does not guide actions. Hume's position on the passions governing moral judgments fits well into today's society. Socrates and Plato may have written about what was true in their society, but their position on reasoning as a criterion for moral actions is no longer valid in the 20th century. Human beings are spontaneous and emotional. They act in their own good, for their own emotional good in that moment. In today's fast-paced world, not many people stop to think about their actions. Hume established that moral judgments have no objective basis, but are only subjective in nature.