On Hume's Political Thought And Conservatism Tendency Under The Visual Threshold Of Hume's Theory Of Human Nature

With more research on Scottish Enlightenment in recent years,Hume's political theory has been much admired and emphasized,which has played a significant role Hume's study.But current research makes us realize that Hume's political thought does not have such influence as his epistemology exerts.Although Rawls regard Hume as the “most influential” critics of modern contract theory,Hume's political text does not seem to provide a strong support for this assertion.In the meantime,conservatism,another prominent feature of Hume's political thought,has been recognized by academic research.Based on the emphasis on tradition and habit,Hume objects to the political philosophy oriented to “Ought Civil Society”,and thus opposes the argument of Contract Theory and the tradition of Natural Law on modern state and government.The theme of this thesis is to interpret Hume's political thought in the context of his theory of human nature and integrate the conflicting ideas during the studies on Hume's political thought.Although there are many controversies over the judgment of Hume's political thought in academic research,it is undoubtedly that the significance of Hume's political thought is manifested through the negation and critique of his assertion,which is well compatible with the subversive effect in the field of epistemology.This paper argues that Hume's political thought lies in his theory of human nature rather than being closely related to his theory of human nature.Therefore,this paper is not in the position that Hume's political thought has independence and integrity.On the contrary,the contradictions in Hume's political thought and the critical influence thereof are completely caused by the principles for the theory of human nature,and the controversy over Hume's political thought can be explained and understood based on the basic principles of his theory of human nature.Therefore,the paper is divided into three parts to interstate Hume's political thought based on the theory of human nature.The first part(Chapter 1 and 2)examines the epistemology principles of Hume's theory of human nature as well as his theory of moral emotion,and these two parts constitute the basis of human nature to understand Hume's political thought.As to epistemology principles,Hume first lays the empirical concept theory on the division of impression from idea and then makes it the basis for determining idea legality.Inthe further explanation about the relationship and connection principle of ideas,Hume interprets the normative principle of human thought as the compound of the concept itself,and thus makes the thinking principle serve as the product of thinking object.On this basis,Hume further elaborates knowledge theory and emphatically discusses causal relation.By questioning three levels of causality,he interprets the inevitability of causality as a reciprocal relationship between a particular cause and a particular result and further renders the latter as a habitual combination.During this process,the affirmation and normalization of experience by rational thinking is guided by the belief formed out of habits and becomes an auxiliary tool.And the instrumentality of rationality is further elaborated in the section of moral emotion theory.Through the different roles of rationality and emotions in moral judgment and moral behavior,Hume makes rationality subordinate and dictated to emotions.However,the said principle falls into crisis confronting social and emotional problems.The latter has to call back rationality due to the joining of utility principle.And spectator theory enables rationality to exert substantial impact on moral emotions.The second part(Chapter 3 and 4)examines the justice principle of Hume's political theory and government theory,which are not only the main content of Hume's political thought,but also have been comprehensively expounded in A Treatise on Human Nature.In the section about the principle of justice,Hume interprets justice as a human virtue by natural and artificial distinctions and further explains the rational factors of human nature as the product of a habitual “tacit understanding” through the so-called theory of social system evolution.Through the principles established by empiricism theory,Hume understands the virtue of justice as a result of the habitual “evolution” of the rule of justice,and the rule of justice beyond an individual is fixed on the issue of property right by virtue of his unique understanding of the “needs” of human beings.By expounding the issue of property right,Hume has provided a “natural” evolving elaboration for the normalization of commercial and social system,whereas there are always “human” factors in the natural evolution.Hume renders government as the constitutor and guardian of a social norm by expounding the relationship between society,justice and government.However,due to Hume's understanding of interpersonal relationships in society,the role of government is limited to maintaining social relations,especially in term ofeconomic cooperation.Hume's party theory is an extension of his government theory with the party theory as an important manifestation of government in Hume's era.Hume's party theory emphasizes the positive and negative effects of the “faction nature” of human beings on mixed constitutionalism system and makes rationality play a fundamental role in mediating party contradictions.The third part(Chapter 5)studies the relationship between Hume's political thought and conservatism.The paper describes the basic connotations of political conservatism based on the discussions about the relationship between psychology trend,ideology and liberalism.Contrast approach has been adopted to compare the political theories respectively raised by Hume and Locke as per a same political issue in this paper to highlight the political stand of Hume's conservatism,which can be deeply understood with the help of Hume's critique of modern contract theory.In conclusion,Hume's political thought is an important part of his theory of human nature,and the emerging contradictions and problems thereof provide an important reference for us to understand the theory of human nature.In this sense,Hume's political thought is the manifestation of his principle of human nature in social field,and the problems occurring in the manifestation is the inevitable result of Hume's “Experimental Reasoning Method”.The conservatism highlighted in Hume's political thought is the irreconcilable result among the principles in his theory of human nature.Therefore,Hume has played an important role in promoting the political philosophy for later generations through the enlightenment and critique of his political thought.