David Hume (1711-1776)

Selections from Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary

Study Questions

from Essay I: "Of Commerce"

• How does Hume justify the idea that commerce reconciles public and private interests?
• What is the role of agriculture and of agricultural workers in Hume's characterization of economic history?What alternatives become available when agriculture produces a surplus capable of supporting many more people than those immediately employed in it?
• Why does Hume believe that ancient rulers were capable of demanding great sacrifices from and of offering few pleasures to their subjects? Why is the situation supposedly different in Hume's own time?
• Hume observes that it may seem as though the greatness of the nation and the happiness of its people are at odds: the more wealth is directed to individuals, the less is available for the purposes of the state. Moreover, the example of Sparta seems to prove this true. On what grounds does Hume argue that, in fact, Sparta is an exception to the general rule, which is that the power of the state and the happiness of its population go together?
• How does this sentence inform Hume's thinking about commerce: "Every thing in the world is purchased by labour: and our passions are the only causes of labour" (160)? Compare Hume's views on the source of value with Locke's. By which passions does Hume suggest that people should be governed, and how do those relate to the spread of commerce?
• How does Hume understand human nature? According to that understanding, what does he believe is the best way of ruling a country? What "passions" (161) does he believe should be encouraged? Is it odd to think of governing people by means of passions?
• In Hume's view, what policies should a government pursue when it comes to economic production and national defense?
• Why does Hume consider it undesirable that most people be devoted to agricultural work? What is the effect of large numbers of people devoting themselves instead to what Hume calls "manufactures and mechanic arts" (159, 160)? What is the advantage of a society maintaining a large workforce thus employed? Why does Hume believe that a workforce employed in manufacturing is easier to convert to military or other public purposes than one employed in agriculture?
• What role does the "common stock of labour" (161) or "storehouse of labour" (166) play in Hume's case for modern commercial society? Compare that notion of Hume's with Locke's idea of the "common stock of mankind."
• What role does foreign trade play in Hume's understanding of the domestic economy and the development of society?
• What does Hume think of merchants becoming so rich as to compete in wealth with the "ancient nobility" (162)? Is this a desirable development? Why? What are Hume's concerns regarding great disproportions in the distribution of wealth in a commercial society? What does Hume think of the possibility of relative equality of wealth and status among the members of a society? What forms of government and what consequences does Hume associate with conditions of social equality and inequality?
  

Essay II: "Refinement of the Arts"

• How does Hume look on the issue of "luxury" (163)? In his view, when does indulgence in luxury become a problem? When is it harmless and "innocent" (164)? How do Hume's views on luxury compare with Aquinas's views on poverty?
• What conditions does Hume correlate with the existence of refinement and luxury?
  In Hume's view, what are the components of human happiness? How is happiness related to "times when industry and the arts flourish" (164)?
• How does Hume come to the happy conclusion: "Thus industry, knowledge, and humanity, are linked together by an indissoluble chain, and are found, from experience as well as reason, to be peculiar to the more polished, and, what are commonly denominated, the more luxurious ages" (165)?
• What is the effect of the practice of the mechanical arts (e.g. weaving, carpentry, etc.) on the liberal arts e.g. (philosophy, literature, etc.) ? Why is it important that people practice "the more vulgar arts ... of commerce and manufacture" (166)? How does this compare with Aristotle's understanding of those issues? What has changed by Hume's time?
• What is the effect of the development of industry and the arts on human character, behavior, and social customs? What is the effect of the lack of development of industry and the arts on human character, behavior, and social customs?
• What is the effect of the development of industry and the arts on government and social order?
• What arguments does Hume use in objecting to the idea that the Roman empire became corrupt and fell because of overindulgence in luxury and pleasure?
• We have repeatedly run up against the issue of boundlessness in connection with wealth in the money form. What does Hume count on to "restrain or regulate the love of money" (168)? Why does Hume believe that greed is actually more restrained in a wealthy and refined society? What does he believe keeps greed in check in such societies?
• According to Hume, what is the ordinary class structure of a non-commercial, agricultural society, and what sort of political culture does it produce? By contrast, what sort of class structure and political culture is characteristic of a commercial society? What are the political consequences of the progress of the arts and the prevalence of refinement? What are the effects on individual freedoms and independence? How are Hume's ideas related to the bourgeois revolutions (American, French) of the eighteenth century and the emerging mystique of the middle class?
• In Hume's view, what would be the effect of banning luxury? What, according to him, are much more important problems in need of addressing? What effect does the allowing of luxury have on such problems? Why does Hume think of such an effect as the curing "of one vice by another" (171)? What does such an idea reveal regarding Hume's thinking? (consider also his notion of governing by the encouragement of passions). Is this absurd and contradictory or profoundly shrewd and astute in relation to human nature and political and economic affairs?

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