ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the relationship between David Hume's moral arguments and his political views. Hume devotes much more attention to his criticism of the rationalists and comparatively less to the criticism of the proponents of the selfish system. Although Hume began his moral philosophy with a critique of the selfish system, he returns to the selfish hypothesis in his political philosophy. The localized natural passions that became irrelevant and even destructive in the large modern state serve an important political purpose of tremendous stability and cohesion. In a large modern state, the natural virtues seem to become less relevant to political demands, such as building bridges, opening harbors, dredging canals, equipping fleets and disciplining armies. However, Hume claims that this is the natural origin of justice; that is, the above account is a non-moral explanation as to why human beings spontaneously came to accept the artificial rules of justice.
