David Hume

1
David Hume

• The Artifice of Justice
• A Treatise of Human Nature Book III, Of Morals

2
Of Justice and Injustice, Natural or Artificial?

• Virtuous acts are perceived as meritorious only
  because they are considered as signs or
  indications of good motives
• The Acts themselves cannot be meritorious (or
  not). Only the motive can be described as
  meritorious (or not) since the motive is assumed
  to be an indication of a state of mind.
• Though a person may act without the motive, this
  idea presupposes a virtuous motive distinct from
  the act, but which is capable of producing the
  act.

Perceived Action Assumed Motive Sign of
Temprement or State of
Mind Praise or Blame Assigned Here
3
Of Justice and Injustice, Natural or Artificial?
(Cont.)

• In other words, honesty, justice, etc., are not
  the acts taken, but the pre-existing motive
  supposed to exist in human nature as the
  underlying reason for the action.
• Cannot say both that
• The just motive renders an action just, and
• That a just act is indicative of a just motive,
  since
• Such reasoning is circular
• Acts, then, can only be just if just in
  themselves, but acts are just only when produced
  by just motives.
• A just motive must, therefore, preceed our
  observation that the act produced is just.
• We cannot equate the motive, and our observation
  of its character.
• How, then, do we discern just motives or decide
  what motives are Just? Answer Artificial
  Conventions adopted by people.

4
Of Justice and Injustice, Natural or Artificial?
(Cont.)

• There must, then, be some motive to acts of
  justice and honesty which is distinct from our
  regard for justice and honesty.
• This is the great difficulty of moral thought.
• Private interest does Not Suffice to produce
  Justice or honesty.
• Private interests would never compel one to repay
  a secret loan
• Private interests would not require honesty to
  the deteriment of ones goods or standing (why not
  lie if you can get away with it and obtain a
  benefit?)
• Public interest does Not Suffice to produce
  Justice or honesty.
• Public interests attach only after the creation
  of the artificial rules of justice
• If a loan was made in secret, then no public
  interests attaches, although a moralist would
  claim that an obligation or duty to repay still
  exists
• Ordinary people in ordinary affairs dont
  consider the public interest

5
Of Justice and Injustice, Natural or Artificial?
(Cont.)

• No real motives for doing right exists but the
  very idea of doing the right thing
• Doing right cannot be determined without first
  knowing what is right.
• But right is determined by the motive of the
  action.
• Therefore, right must be determined
  artificially, not through nature, but by human
  convention.
• This understanding explains the I ought from
  what is the distinction between is and
  ought.
• Human Passions will influence our convention on
  right, as a sense of duty will arise from the
  course of our passions.
• Thus the rules may be artificial, but are not
  arbitrary.

6
The Origin of Justice and Property

• Tis by society alone that man overcomes
• Lack of power to survive well
• In having to do everything, one is expert at
  nothin
• Individuals are insecure, and must be ruined if
  he fails anything by misfortune or accident
• To Hume, society forms from the family i.e. the
  attraction between the sexes (Aristotle)
• To Hume, People are basically good Selfishness
  is balanced by Affection and Generosity
• Hume describes three kinds of Goods (of life)
• Our minds (internal goods)
• Our health (of body, but thought of as internal)
• Our goods (external) and here are the problems
  which cause societys creation
• Instability of possession without society
• Relative scarcity

7
The Origin of Justice and Property (cont.)

• Aritifice of Society, then, is to stabalize
  possession of goods and leave us in peaceable
  possession of them.
• This artificial convention is not in the nature
  of a promise, but rather a general assumption
  that all will comply with the artifice.
• From that artificial convention arises all ideas
  of property, right, and obligation.
• The state of nature is nothing but a mere
  fiction.
• Increase the benevolence of people, or increase
  natures bounty to satisfy all peoples needs, and
  you render the concept of justice useless.
• Peoples selfishness and lack of resources are
  the origin of Justice.
• The impressions which give rise to the concept of
  justice are not natural to the mind of man, but
  artificial conventions created by man