Enquiry Concerning the Principles of MoralsDavid Hume
About Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
Hume considered the (1751) his best work, though it has always lived in the shadow of the . It asks a deceptively simple question: what is the foundation of moral distinctions? Hume's answer: not reason alone, but sentiment, specifically the sentiment of humanity, a fellow-feeling for the welfare of others.
The argument proceeds by survey. Hume examines the qualities we approve of in persons (benevolence, justice, fidelity, modesty, courage) and finds that each is valued either because it is useful to society, useful to the individual who possesses it, immediately agreeable to others, or immediately agreeable to oneself. No moral distinction arises from relations of ideas or matters of fact considered in isolation. Reason can determine means, but it cannot supply ends. Only feeling can explain why we prefer virtue to vice.
Justice receives special treatment. It is an "artificial" virtue whose rules arise from convention, not instinct, yet it commands genuine moral approval because of its utility. Property, promise, and allegiance are human inventions, but they are inventions without which social life would collapse.
Hume writes with the confidence of a man who believes he has settled a question. The clarity of the Enquiry makes it the most accessible entry point into his moral philosophy.