On David Hume's Theory Of Justice

David Hume(1711——1776) was a famous English moral philosopher in the 18th century . In his whole ideological system, moral principles and ethics were very rich and the theory of justice was an important part of moral principles and ethics. However, people often neglected his theory of justice when they studied Hume's sentimental moral philosophy, which lead to people's ignorance of his theory. The situation of study in our country and other countries was an imperfection compared to the situation that justice is becoming a more and more important central issue in politics of current world, economics, philosophy and ethics. In our country, it was when people studied how to provide a theoretical direction in our construction of socialist market economy that they found the value of Hume's theory of justice. Therefore, in this status quo, to study Hume's theory of justice has its current value and its significance of practice.The origin of Hume's theory of justice contains 3 aspects. Firstly, it comes from Plato's and Aristotle's theory of justice. Theory of justice has its rich ideological source in the west. In Plato's opinion, justice means inequality and a social stratum. In this kind of society, different people have different social roles. So this kind of society has its peace and tranquility. Another thinker, Aristotle, expounds justice from the points of economy and social law. In his opinion, justice means equality and corresponding to social laws. If a person breaks the laws, he practices injustices. Although Hume lived far from the times of Plato and Aristotle, he inherited and developed some of their views. Secondly, it comes from the theory of contract of Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. Hobbes and Locke consider that people have their contract and come to justice by their reason in the situation of Nature. Hume adopts some of their theory of contract. But he abandons their method of reason and he uses the method of perception. He believes that people have the contract by their perception and experience not by their reason. Thirdly, it comes from theories of human properties of Francis Hutcheson and Bernard Mandeville. Francis Hutcheson believes that human nature is benevolent and merciful. Bernard Mandeville believes that human nature is selfish and bad. Hume combines their views and considers that humans have their benevolence and selfishness as their nature. As for the objective aspect of the formation of justice, human beings organize themselves into a society and practice justice by contracting and overcoming their natural properties and environmental conditions. Justice comes into being on the basis of contract which is an invention based on interests and refers to their common interests. That is to say, interests give rise to contract, which bring about justice. Secondly, the property of justice is an artificial virtue. Hume held that justice was produced by an artificial measure, that is, human agreement. Justice was an artificial virtue instead of a...