Feel, compare and judge
Hume investigates qualities that attract approval and esteem, connecting utility, agreeableness, sentiment and correction of our personal viewpoint.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Utility
Qualities useful to oneself or others support approval without reducing every virtue to selfish calculation. He considered this enquiry particularly successful; it reworks the Treatise’s ethics in a more accessible form.
Sympathy
Concern for others’ welfare explains why benefits to strangers can affect us. Read the sections on justice and utility, then the appendix on moral sentiment. Distinguish a judgment’s origin from our capacity to debate and correct it.
Justice
Conventions respond to social circumstances and the requirements of cooperation. Help given to a stranger can please you without bringing any personal advantage.
Read the sections on justice and utility, then the appendix on moral sentiment. Distinguish a judgment’s origin from our capacity to debate and correct it.
Your turn to think.
- Can a moral sentiment be corrected?
- Why does a stranger’s welfare matter to us?
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