Treatise of Human Natur

In section iii of "Treatise of Human Nature", Hume states that "reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them". With that being said, he considers passion to be ruler or leader of our reasons. We often act on both direct and indirect passions such as happiness, anxiety, pain, love, and hatred. Hume feels that an action out of passion does not necessarily have much to do with reason because passion often prompts an action. However, it is the reasoning that displays the processes of actually executing one's passions. Reason makes rational sense of a matter at hand. It uses rationality to draw conclusions and make just decisions concerning these matters.

Sometimes it may be better to act out of reason than passion. However, I feel that in order for reason to overpower passion the desire has to be a lot more powerful. For example, one may be extremely broke and is offered money stolen from a bank. Although they are in dire need of money, the act of reason would guide one into thinking of the possible consequence if they take the money. The consequence could be potentially convicted of receiving stolen money. Even though this person does not have any money, the thought of going to prison would keep one from taking the money (in most cases). On the other hand, there are certain situations where it would be better to act out of passion than reason. Consider your child drowning in a swimming pool. The possibility that both the parent and the child would survive is extremely low. The reasonable thing would be to not try to save them because most likely you both would not survive. Due to the fact that you have such strong passion for your child, you are going to try and save them regardless of the odds.