Hume's Noble Lie: An Account of His Artificial Virtues

Canadian Journal of Philosophy 12 (3):539 - 555 (1982)
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Abstract

Hume scholars have been anxious to point out that when Hume calls Justice, chastity and so on artificial virtues, he is in no way denying that they are real virtues. I shall argue that they are mistaken, and that anyone who wants to understand Hume's account of Justice and his category of artificial virtues must take seriously his choice of the word ‘artifice,’ recognizing that it means not only ‘Skill in designing and employing expedients,’ but also ‘address, cunning, trickery.'My suggestion will seem strange given Hume's own repeated plea that we not take the term ‘artifice’ too seriously. Yet while it is generally good policy to take people - at least philosophers - at their word, this is a Justified exception, Justified not only by Hume's known proclivities to irony and subtlety, but also by the implications of hearkening to his plea. To see the implications of not taking the terms ‘artificial’ and ‘artifice’ seriously, one can read either Duncan Forbes’ or Barry Stroud's criticisms of Hume's account of Justice.

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Marcia Baron
Indiana University, Bloomington

Citations of this work

Hume's Justice and the Problem of the Missing Motive.Ian Cruise - forthcoming - Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy.
Hume’s Theory of Business Ethics Revisited.William Kline - 2012 - Journal of Business Ethics 105 (2):163-174.
La obligación política en Hume. Entre precariedad y escepticismo.Nicole Darat Guerra - 2022 - Anales Del Seminario de Historia de la Filosofía 39 (2):357-369.
Hume’s Self-Interest Requirement.Robert Shaver - 1994 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 24 (1):1-17.

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References found in this work

Convention: A Philosophical Study.David Lewis - 1969 - Synthese 26 (1):153-157.
Two concepts of rules.John Rawls - 1955 - Philosophical Review 64 (1):3-32.
Passion and Value in Hume's Treatise.[author unknown] - 1966 - Les Etudes Philosophiques 22 (2):211-212.
Hume on justice.A. D. Woozley - 1978 - Philosophical Studies 33 (1):81 - 99.
Good men’s women.Annette Baier - 1979 - Hume Studies 5 (1):1-19.

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