Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow.
David HumeRead
From the apparent usefulness of the social virtues, it has readily been inferred by sceptics, both ancient and modern, that all moral distinctions arise from education, and were, at first, invented, and afterwards encouraged ... in order to render men tractable, and subdue their natural ferocity and selfishness, which incapacitated them for society.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Hume suggests that social virtues are developed through education to tame human nature's selfish instincts.
In this quote, David Hume posits that the moral distinctions and social virtues we hold are not innate but rather cultivated through education. He argues that these virtues were created to manage humanity's natural tendencies toward ferocity and selfishness, thereby enabling individuals to live harmoniously within society. Hume challenges the notion that morality is an inherent quality, highlighting the role of societal structure and upbringing in shaping moral behavior.
Themes
MoralityEducationSocietyVirtuesHuman Nature
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about ethics at a philosophy conference.
More from David Hume
All quotes →Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding.
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All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.
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There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find every where those ideas which are most present to it.
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To have recourse to the veracity of the supreme Being, in order to prove the veracity of our senses, is surely making a very unexpected circuit.
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