University of Kansas, Fall 2002
Philosophy 672: History of Ethics
Ben Eggleston

Test—Hume

Please answer the following questions in the time allotted, without the use of books, notes, or other people. The last question is a bonus question, not among the questions given to you in advance.

  1. (10 points:) What does Hume mean when he says (in A1.21) that the standard of taste “aris[es] from the internal frame and constitution of animals”?
  2. (20 points:) Some of Hume’s contemporaries claimed that people are motivated entirely by self-interest—a claim that can be taken in at least two ways. How can Hume be read as claiming that in one sense, this claim is false, and that in another sense, it’s possibly true but essentially trivial?
  3. (10 points:) How would it undermine Hume’s examination of the virtues if it turned out that, as many of Hume’s contemporaries claimed, people are motivated entirely by self-interest?
  4. (20 points:) What does Hume mean in calling justice a “jealous virtue”? What does Hume regard as the circumstances of justice, and how does his characterization of the circumstances of justice clarify his characterization of justice as a “jealous virtue”?
  5. (20 points:) At the beginning of part 2 of section 3 (in 3.23–28), Hume mentions some conceptions of justice that are alternatives to the conception of justice that actually prevails in most societies, and he claims that although the former may intuitively seem preferable, the prevalence of the latter is explained by its superior usefulness. What are the alternative conceptions of justice that Hume mentions (I’m looking for two), and why (according to Hume) would these be less useful, in practice, than the conception of justice that is actually in use?
  6. (20 points:) A crucial concept in Hume’s account of the virtues of the concept of sympathy. What does he mean by sympathy, and in what way does it provide a unified foundation for Hume’s several accounts of why various character traits are regarded as virtues?
  7. What is Hume trying to accomplish in the “Dialogue” at the end of the second Enquiry? You can get up to 5 points by answering this question.