Hume and justice

A detailed Summary of Hume and justice

In An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Hume speaks about the relationship between justice and utility and its connection to sentiment humanity and the ability to make moral distinctions. He first establishes the existence of justice in the world and then observes and analyzes its relationship to utility. Hume then makes the association between sentiment humanity and the ability to make moral judgements. He ultimately links this ability to the acquisition of justice. Hume's explanation of the conjunction begins with his empirical methods of observation.

Hume states that all knowledge is based on experience. All ideas that lead to this knowledge come from and are based on sense impressions. What and how we know that which we do know (and claim to know) are all traced back to sense impressions. This can be illustrated by examining our ideas of God, a being for whom we cannot have direct sense impressions, the most abstract and seemingly untraceable idea. We initially have sense impressions of ourselves as humans. Sense impressions of the weak, the strong, the smart, and dumb, all lead to our idea of God. Our impressions of God are essentially our sense impressions of humans without all the defects. This explains by

Hume explains his theory of justice through the idea of public utility. He joins the two concepts by stating that only what is useful is just, that the sole origin of justice is utility. Utility is something from which we benefit. It is therefore always praiseworthy. If something is seen to be useful, we naturally embrace and receive it. In explicating the connection between justice and public utility, Hume presents to us two opposing scenarios of having. The first extreme is that of overabundance. In a society where there is too much of all resources, the need for justice would be eradicated. The need for property or generosity would no longer exist and justice would therefore be rendered useless. Likewise, in the opposite extreme, the society where there is too little, justice would lose its efficacy and still be considered useless. "By rendering justice totally useless, you thereby totally destroy its essence, and suspend its obligation upon mankind." (24) We, belonging to common society, fit in somewhere in between these two extremes and therefore have the need for justice. Justice is useful to us. "Thus, the rules of equity or justice depend entirely on the particular state and condition, in which men are placed, and owe their origin and existence to that utility..." (23). The content of what we mean by justice is apt to change but the connection between justice and utility is not. That which is just is necessarily useful.

If we examine justice in terms of laws and property, a similar conclusion would be reached. "The good of mankind is the only object of these laws and regulations." (27) Therefore, "in order to establish laws for the regulation of property, we must be acquainted with the nature and situation of man; must reject appearances...and must search for those rules, which are, on the whole most useful and beneficial," (28) in the same

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Approximate Word count = 1257
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Miscellaneous