David Hume's Idea Of Economic Justice And It's Modern Value

David Hume (1711 - 1776) is a 18th century Scottish philosopher and ethicist. Hume's ethical thought is an important ideological component of the ideological system and economic justice is an important part of its ethics. In recent years, people from different perspective of disciplines have tried to carry out the inquiry to Hume's Theory of Justice, but study from an economic point of view to explore the ethics is few. In fact, Hume's justice is to safeguard and protect private property rights, are concerned about fair and just distribution of properties, which can be described as a kind of economic justice. It is a product of the development of capitalist market economy, which provided a defense of ethics of the bourgeois-liberal market economic policy. Today, China's socialist market economic system is gradually improving, but still there are some phenomena of moral anomie. Therefore, in-depth study of Hume's thinking on economic justice is a theoretically meaningful and valuable for drawing reference.The text is divided into five chapters.ChapterⅠ, Discussion of the theoretical origins and social background of Hume's theory of economic justice. Solon, Plato, and Aristotle's idea of economic justice provided a wealth of reference for Hume putting forward his own ideas of economic justice theory. the political merger of Scotland and England in 1707 promoted economic integration of the two places as well as the rise of the Scottish Enlightenment, all these constituted the social background of Hume's thinking of the economic justice.Chapter II ,Analysis of the premise of Hume's theory of economic justice. through studying intellectuality Hume started the researching of ethics, the study provided a theoretical premise for the explanation of economic justice, and his emotionalism provides a moral foundation for economic justice. His external and internal default of human nature is provided premise of the theory of human nature for the economic justice ideas.Chapter III ,Explaination of the specific content of economic justice. Mainly includes three aspects: first, the premise economy justice generated by - human agreement. Here in Hume, justice is based on the "human agreement", and the agreement is an expression of the sense of the human common interests. Only on the basis of coordination of human interests is the justice law become possible. Second, the three rules of Hume's economic justice, they are—the rule of stable possession of property, the rule of transferring properties in accordance, the rule of fulfilling the promise. The three rules are the core content of Hume's economic justice. Third, the defender of economic justice: the Government. The main function of government is to force people comply with the laws of economic justice, so as to maintain peace and social order, and to realize the promotion of universal and practical human interests.Chapter IV ,Discussion of the function of Hume's economic justice. First of all, law of economic justice established and protected private property rights and opposed equal distribution of property. Secondly, it maintained social stability. Third, it promoted public interests. Finally, economic justice from the three aspects of order, efficiency and mutual benefit provided defense for the development of a capitalist market economy.ChapterⅤ,Theoretical impact and value of reference of Hume's theory of economic justice. Theoretical impact of economic justice rest with two aspects: First, the impact of the theory on utilitarianism. Second, the impact on Rawls theory of justice. Hume's thinking on economic justice reflects the general characteristics of the market economy and made argument for the rationality and legitimacy of the development of a capitalist market economy. Therefore, it has an important reference value for contemporary China in the period of gradual improvement of the market economic system. It's values mainly reflected in three aspects: first, to clear property rights. Second, it requires us to focus on the stability and respect for private property rights. Third, it requires honest and trust in establishing credit mechanism suits the development of the socialist market economic.Research methods in this article: first, text-based, be faithful to the true intentions of Hume in theory. Second, combining the methods of history and the methods of logic. In this paper, the author analyzed Hume's thinking of economic justice in the social background of the time, demonstrated the objectivity and inevitability of its birth. Third, the combination of macro and micro approach, on the one hand to carry out macro comprehension of Hume economic justice to probe into its origins, historical background, theoretical basis and the impact of depth, on the other hand, analyzed the key concepts of understanding Hume's thinking on economic justice. Fourth, the literature review. Through reference of various types to draw research results of senior scholars on Hume's thinking of economic justice.