David Hume by Freydberg Bernard

Author:Freydberg, Bernard [Freydberg]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781438442167
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: 2012-05-14T16:00:00+00:00

However, she departs the earth in disgust after the evil generation susbsequent to the Golden Age unfolded into still greater depravity. Turning to the men of the Silver Age, Dikē curses them:

Behold what manner of race the fathers of the Golden Age left behind them! Far meaner than themselves! But you will breed a viler progeny! Verily wars and cruel bloodshed shall be unto men and grievous woe shall be laid upon them.12

With Dikē having departed, dikē divested of its divine status becomes open to question in the Republic, where it is or seems to be defined politically as each of the three classes minding its own business, and is or seems to be defined psychically as each of the three parts of the soul minding its own business.13 For Aristotle, justice is a moral virtue, a mean between two extremes. He offers no clear definition of justice, but divides it into distributive and rectificatory; for each, justice implies components of law-abidingness and fairness.

Hume's argument may suffer from a weak P2. However, his esteem for justice has an echo even more ancient than Plato or Aristotle, more ancient indeed than the discovery of logic. There can be no doubt concerning the quality, the power, the subtlety, the far-reaching consequences, and the continuing interest of Hume's argumentation. However, I would like to place his claim for the second Enquiry as being “of all my writings, historical, or literary, incomparably the best”14 in a radical and perhaps transgressive context, a context that Hume would almost surely have found unacceptable. “[The second Enquiry] came unnoticed and unobserved into the world”15 because the source from which it draws is archaic.

Hume's initial appeal is to a peculiar sense of touch, namely the touch of the images of right and wrong upon even the iciest sensibility. I suggest that this touch has significance beyond what we today often carelessly call “metaphoric.” Rather, it points to a way of apprehension that is anterior to the sensible/intelligible distinction, and thus surely to the impressions/ideas and matter of fact/relation of ideas twofold that constitutes the field of knowledge as presented in the first Enquiry. Thus, the apparent paradox of Hume's supposed skepticism in theoretical matters but assurance in moral matters is resolved: Hume addresses theoretical matters critically but in terms of the kinds of dualism belonging to modern philosophy, but in the text of his practical philosophy archaic echoes are heard.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.