Seeking Visible Justice

In the 17th century, when the capitalist class revolted the feudal order and feudal oppression, naturalists included transcendent value category such as freedom, equality, impartial and justice into the natural justice theory in the name of "rationality" based on inheriting the traditional theory of virtue-justice and the traditional theory of theological justice critically. The natural law and the theory of natural justice had become the powerful weapon, with which the capitalist class revolted feudal oppression and established the legitimate reign of the capitalist class. However, in the 18th century, about fifty years after English revolution of 1688, people gave more attention on how could they adapt to industrial revolution, how could they provide theoretical support for developing capitalistic commodity economy and how could they protect accumulated capitalist industry and commerce wealth. In a word, how could they realize justice which had been in a natural state of imaginary and impractical in a way that was visible in human society. The classical natural law and the theory of natural justice could not satisfy requirements mentioned above. From his Skepticism, Hume recognized that the traditional justice theory could not integrate social behaviors. How the new justice theory could be established so that the profits of the capitalist class could be protected and justice could be established and realized, in other word, how visible justice could be found. It was Hume that held the historic load.Inheriting the theory of virtue-justice by Aristotle, the theory of theological justice in medieval and the theory of natural justice in age of enlightenment critically, and starting from basic human needs and the reality of relatively deficient nature resources, Hume put forward the justice rule theory which was centered on property rights and based on common interests. Specifically, Hume's "visible justice" was included the principle of stale property possession, the principle of transferring property fights according to agreements and the principle of fulfilling commitments. By providing powerful thoughts foundation and theoretical supporting for the emerging capitalistic commodity economy, and defending for the legitimacy of the capitalist regime, his philosophy of rights influenced aftertime greatly. By establishing the acknowledged principle of wealth gaining and distribution, and the corresponding institution of law, citizen's legitimate material and civilized needs were satisfied. All of these provided important references to our construction of well-off and harmonious society.