ABSTRACT
Hume praised commercial societies for simultaneously promoting both moral and material improvement. He believed that by engaging in industry, commerce, and the refinement of the arts – quotidian activities in commercial societies – a person’s mind is refined in a manner that facilitates the development of more polished moral sentiments. Hume furthermore argued that commercial societies have a built-in mechanism that ensures that the material and moral improvement process gradually spreads throughout the world. Given that Hume situated the moral improvement process in commercial praxis, this chapter concludes that his moral philosophy must be understood in the context of his political economy.
