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Single Idea 6581
[filed under theme 25. Social Practice / C. Rights / 4. Property rights
]
Full Idea
Hume thought (in contrast to Locke) that property reflects a conventional (rather than natural) relationship determined by the laws that protect people from having things taken from them.
Gist of Idea
Hume thought (unlike Locke) that property is a merely conventional relationship
Source
report of David Hume (Nine political essays [1741]) by Robert Fogelin - Walking the Tightrope of Reason Ch.3
Book Ref
Fogelin,Robert: 'Walking the Tightrope of Reason' [OUP 2004], p.75
A Reaction
It seems pretty obvious that the idea of property was invented by the powerful, to protect their gains against the weak. I suspect that you might till a piece of land simply in order to assert ownership of it, just as you might bring in colonists.
The
217 ideas
from David Hume
3661
|
'Natural beliefs' are unavoidable, whatever our judgements
[Hume, by Strawson,G]
|
3902
|
Hume mistakenly lumps sensations and perceptions together as 'impressions'
[Scruton on Hume]
|
6350
|
Premises can support an argument without entailing it
[Pollock/Cruz on Hume]
|
8344
|
At first Hume said qualities are the causal entities, but later he said events
[Hume, by Davidson]
|
15249
|
Hume never shows how a strong habit could generate the concept of necessity
[Harré/Madden on Hume]
|
8339
|
Hume's regularity theory of causation is epistemological; he believed in some sort of natural necessity
[Hume, by Strawson,G]
|
4636
|
All reasoning concerning matters of fact is based on analogy (with similar results of similar causes)
[Hume]
|
13602
|
We cannot form an idea of a 'power', and the word is without meaning
[Hume]
|
8422
|
Cause is where if the first object had not been, the second had not existed
[Hume]
|
17712
|
General ideas are the connection by resemblance to some particular
[Hume]
|
23631
|
Hume is loose when he says perceptions of different strength are different species
[Reid on Hume]
|
2182
|
Impressions are our livelier perceptions, Ideas the less lively ones
[Hume]
|
2184
|
All ideas are copies of impressions
[Hume]
|
2183
|
We can only invent a golden mountain by combining experiences
[Hume]
|
2185
|
The idea of an infinite, intelligent, wise and good God arises from augmenting the best qualities of our own minds
[Hume]
|
2186
|
We cannot form the idea of something we haven't experienced
[Hume]
|
23421
|
If a person had a gap in their experience of blue shades, they could imaginatively fill it in
[Hume]
|
2187
|
If we suspect that a philosophical term is meaningless, we should ask what impression it derives from
[Hume]
|
2189
|
All ideas are connected by Resemblance, Contiguity in time or place, and Cause and Effect
[Hume]
|
3662
|
Hume says we can only know constant conjunctions, not that that's what causation IS
[Hume, by Strawson,G]
|
2190
|
All objects of enquiry are Relations of Ideas, or Matters of Fact
[Hume]
|
2191
|
Relations of ideas are known by thought, independently from the world
[Hume]
|
2192
|
All reasoning about facts is causal; nothing else goes beyond memory and senses
[Hume]
|
2194
|
How could Adam predict he would drown in water or burn in fire?
[Hume]
|
2193
|
No causes can be known a priori, but only from experience of constant conjunctions
[Hume]
|
2195
|
We can discover some laws of nature, but never its ultimate principles and causes
[Hume]
|
2196
|
The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy
[Hume]
|
2197
|
Reason assists experience in discovering laws, and in measuring their application
[Hume]
|
2198
|
We assume similar secret powers behind similar experiences, such as the nourishment of bread
[Hume]
|
3598
|
Hume just shows induction isn't deduction
[Williams,M on Hume]
|
2199
|
Reason cannot show why reliable past experience should extend to future times and remote places
[Hume]
|
2200
|
All experimental conclusions assume that the future will be like the past
[Hume]
|
2702
|
Only madmen dispute the authority of experience
[Hume]
|
2201
|
Induction can't prove that the future will be like the past, since induction assumes this
[Hume]
|
2202
|
Fools, children and animals all learn from experience
[Hume]
|
2204
|
All inferences from experience are effects of custom, not reasoning
[Hume]
|
2203
|
If we infer causes from repetition, this explains why we infer from a thousand objects what we couldn't infer from one
[Hume]
|
2205
|
You couldn't reason at all if you lacked experience
[Hume]
|
2206
|
Reasons for belief must eventually terminate in experience, or they are without foundation
[Hume]
|
2207
|
Belief can't be a concept plus an idea, or we could add the idea to fictions
[Hume]
|
2208
|
Belief is just a particular feeling attached to ideas of objects
[Hume]
|
2209
|
Belief is stronger, clearer and steadier than imagination
[Hume]
|
8544
|
Hume does not distinguish real resemblances among degrees of resemblance
[Shoemaker on Hume]
|
2210
|
A picture of a friend strengthens our idea of him, by resemblance
[Hume]
|
2211
|
When I am close to (contiguous with) home, I feel its presence more nearly
[Hume]
|
2212
|
An object made by a saint is the best way to produce thoughts of him
[Hume]
|
2213
|
Beliefs are built up by resemblance, contiguity and causation
[Hume]
|
2214
|
Our awareness of patterns of causation is too important to be left to slow and uncertain reasoning
[Hume]
|
2215
|
There is no such thing as chance
[Hume]
|
2216
|
We transfer the frequency of past observations to our future predictions
[Hume]
|
8341
|
Hume never even suggests that there is no such thing as causation
[Hume, by Strawson,G]
|
2217
|
When definitions are pushed to the limit, only experience can make them precise
[Hume]
|
2218
|
In observing causes we can never observe any necessary connections or binding qualities
[Hume]
|
2220
|
Only experience teaches us about our wills
[Hume]
|
2221
|
A cause is either similar events following one another, or an experience always suggesting a second experience
[Hume]
|
4771
|
In both of Hume's definitions, causation is extrinsic to the sequence of events
[Psillos on Hume]
|
5194
|
Hume's definition of cause as constantly joined thoughts can't cover undiscovered laws
[Ayer on Hume]
|
2222
|
The doctrine of free will arises from a false sensation we have of freedom in many actions
[Hume]
|
2223
|
Liberty is merely acting according to the will, which anyone can do if they are not in chains
[Hume]
|
2224
|
Praise and blame can only be given if an action proceeds from a person's character and disposition
[Hume]
|
2225
|
If you deny all necessity and causation, then our character is not responsible for our crime
[Hume]
|
2226
|
Repentance gets rid of guilt, which shows that responsibility arose from the criminal principles in the mind
[Hume]
|
3655
|
Hume makes determinism less rigid by removing the necessity from causation
[Trusted on Hume]
|
10328
|
We think testimony matches reality because of experience, not some a priori connection
[Hume]
|
2228
|
All experience must be against a supposed miracle, or it wouldn't be called 'a miracle'
[Hume]
|
2227
|
A miracle violates laws which have been established by continuous unchanging experience, so should be ignored
[Hume]
|
2229
|
To establish a miracle the falseness of the evidence must be a greater miracle than the claimed miraculous event
[Hume]
|
2230
|
Good testimony needs education, integrity, motive and agreement
[Hume, by PG]
|
2232
|
You can't infer the cause to be any greater than its effect
[Hume]
|
2233
|
No government has ever suffered by being too tolerant of philosophy
[Hume]
|
2234
|
It is only when two species of thing are constantly conjoined that we can infer one from the other
[Hume]
|
4772
|
If a singular effect is studied, its cause can only be inferred from the types of events involved
[Hume]
|
2235
|
There is no certain supreme principle, or infallible rule of inference
[Hume]
|
2237
|
It never occurs to people that they only experience representations, not the real objects
[Hume]
|
2236
|
Examples of illusion only show that sense experience needs correction by reason
[Hume]
|
2238
|
Reason can never show that experiences are connected to external objects
[Hume]
|
2239
|
If secondary qualities (e.g. hardness) are in the mind, so are primary qualities like extension
[Hume]
|
7700
|
We can't think about the abstract idea of triangles, but only of particular triangles
[Hume]
|
2240
|
It is a very extravagant aim of the sceptics to destroy reason and argument by means of reason and argument
[Hume]
|
2241
|
The main objection to scepticism is that no good can come of it
[Hume]
|
2242
|
Mitigated scepticism draws attention to the limitations of human reason, and encourages modesty
[Hume]
|
2243
|
Mitigated scepticism sensibly confines our enquiries to the narrow capacity of human understanding
[Hume]
|
2246
|
If books don't relate ideas or explain facts, commit them to the flames
[Hume]
|
2245
|
A priori it looks as if a cause could have absolutely any effect
[Hume]
|
2244
|
It can never be a logical contradiction to assert the non-existence of something thought to exist
[Hume]
|
3918
|
Moral philosophy aims to show us our duty
[Hume]
|
3919
|
Conclusions of reason do not affect our emotions or decisions to act
[Hume]
|
23560
|
If we all naturally had everything we could ever desire, the virtue of justice would be irrelevant
[Hume]
|
3920
|
If you equalise possessions, people's talents will make them unequal again
[Hume]
|
3921
|
The safety of the people is the supreme law
[Hume]
|
3922
|
Justice only exists to support society
[Hume]
|
3925
|
Personal Merit is the possession of useful or agreeable mental qualities
[Hume]
|
3926
|
The human heart has a natural concern for public good
[Hume]
|
3929
|
No moral theory is of any use if it doesn't serve the interests of the individual concerned
[Hume]
|
3928
|
Virtue just requires careful calculation and a preference for the greater happiness
[Hume]
|
3927
|
Society prefers helpful lies to harmful truth
[Hume]
|
3923
|
No one would cause pain to a complete stranger who happened to be passing
[Hume]
|
3924
|
Nature makes private affections come first, because public concerns are spread too thinly
[Hume]
|
21094
|
There are two kinds of right - to power, and to property
[Hume]
|
21095
|
It is an exaggeration to say that property is the foundation of all government
[Hume]
|
20705
|
That events could be uncaused is absurd; I only say intuition and demonstration don't show this
[Hume]
|
4579
|
The idea of a final cause is very uncertain and unphilosophical
[Hume]
|
4580
|
All virtues benefit either the public, or the individual who possesses them
[Hume]
|
4581
|
Virtues and vices are like secondary qualities in perception, found in observers, not objects
[Hume]
|
7636
|
It can't be more rational to believe in natural laws than miracles if the laws are not rational
[Ishaq on Hume]
|
6957
|
The objects of theological reasoning are too big for our minds
[Hume]
|
6959
|
We can't assume God's perfections are like our ideas or like human attributes
[Hume]
|
6961
|
An analogy begins to break down as soon as the two cases differ
[Hume]
|
6960
|
Analogy suggests that God has a very great human mind
[Hume]
|
6958
|
How can we pronounce on a whole after a brief look at a very small part?
[Hume]
|
6962
|
The thing which contains order must be God, so see God where you see order
[Hume]
|
6964
|
From our limited view, we cannot tell if the universe is faulty
[Hume]
|
6965
|
The universe may be the result of trial-and-error
[Hume]
|
21279
|
If the divine cause is proportional to its effects, the effects are finite, so the Deity cannot be infinite
[Hume]
|
21280
|
From a ship you would judge its creator a genius, not a mere humble workman
[Hume]
|
21282
|
Design cannot prove a unified Deity. Many men make a city, so why not many gods for a world?
[Hume]
|
21281
|
This excellent world may be the result of a huge sequence of trial-and-error
[Hume]
|
21283
|
Humans renew their species sexually. If there are many gods, would they not do the same?
[Hume]
|
21284
|
This Creator god might be an infant or incompetent or senile
[Hume]
|
6963
|
Why would we infer an infinite creator from a finite creation?
[Hume]
|
6966
|
Creation is more like vegetation than human art, so it won't come from reason
[Hume]
|
6967
|
Order may come from an irrational source as well as a rational one
[Hume]
|
21286
|
Motion often begins in matter, with no sign of a controlling agent
[Hume]
|
21287
|
The universe could settle into superficial order, without a designer
[Hume]
|
21288
|
Ideas arise from objects, not vice versa; ideas only influence matter if they are linked
[Hume]
|
21285
|
Events are baffling before experience, and obvious after experience
[Hume]
|
1435
|
If something must be necessary so that something exists rather than nothing, why can't the universe be necessary?
[Hume]
|
21254
|
A chain of events requires a cause for the whole as well as the parts, yet the chain is just a sum of parts
[Hume]
|
21255
|
No being's non-existence can imply a contradiction, so its existence cannot be proved a priori
[Hume]
|
21256
|
A surprise feature of all products of 9 looks like design, but is actually a necessity
[Hume]
|
6581
|
Hume thought (unlike Locke) that property is a merely conventional relationship
[Hume, by Fogelin]
|
21097
|
Modern monarchies are (like republics) rule by law, rather than by men
[Hume]
|
4677
|
If suicide is wrong because only God disposes of our lives, it must also be wrong to save lives
[Hume]
|
21096
|
The only purpose of government is to administer justice, which brings security
[Hume]
|
21099
|
People must have agreed to authority, because they are naturally equal, prior to education
[Hume]
|
21100
|
The idea that society rests on consent or promises undermines obedience
[Hume]
|
20495
|
We no more give 'tacit assent' to the state than a passenger carried on board a ship while asleep
[Hume]
|
6703
|
Poor people lack the knowledge or wealth to move to a different state
[Hume]
|
21101
|
The people would be amazed to learn that government arises from their consent
[Hume]
|
21102
|
We all know that the history of property is founded on injustices
[Hume]
|
21103
|
Moral questions can only be decided by common opinion
[Hume]
|
21091
|
It would be absurd if even a free constitution did not impose restraints, for the public good
[Hume]
|
21092
|
Nobility either share in the power of the whole, or they compose the power of the whole
[Hume]
|
21093
|
Friendship without community spirit misses out on the main part of virtue
[Hume]
|
6608
|
Strong sense, delicate sentiment, practice, comparisons, and lack of prejudice, are all needed for good taste
[Hume]
|
18552
|
Forget about beauty; just concentrate on the virtues of delicacy and discernment admired in critics
[Hume, by Scruton]
|
6692
|
For Hume, practical reason has little force, because we can always modify our desires
[Hume, by Graham]
|
20030
|
If one event causes another, the two events must be wholly distinct
[Hume, by Wilson/Schpall]
|
4008
|
Modern science has destroyed the Platonic synthesis of scientific explanation and morality
[Hume, by Taylor,C]
|
8067
|
The problem of getting to 'ought' from 'is' would also apply in getting to 'owes' or 'needs'
[Anscombe on Hume]
|
5548
|
Hume became a total sceptic, because he believed that reason was a deception
[Hume, by Kant]
|
7446
|
The idea of inductive evidence, around 1660, made Hume's problem possible
[Hume, by Hacking]
|
3819
|
Hume's 'bundle' won't distinguish one mind with ten experiences from ten minds
[Searle on Hume]
|
6182
|
Even Hume didn't include mathematics in his empiricism
[Hume, by Kant]
|
6489
|
Associationism results from having to explain intentionality just with sense-data
[Robinson,H on Hume]
|
6526
|
Hume says objects are not a construction, but an imaginative leap
[Hume, by Robinson,H]
|
11098
|
Momentary impressions are wrongly identified with one another on the basis of resemblance
[Hume, by Quine]
|
8382
|
For Hume a constant conjunction is both necessary and sufficient for causation
[Hume, by Crane]
|
19274
|
Hume seems to presuppose necessary connections between mental events
[Kripke on Hume]
|
12048
|
The only meaning we have for substance is a collection of qualities
[Hume]
|
7954
|
If we see a resemblance among objects, we apply the same name to them, despite their differences
[Hume]
|
9428
|
Nothing we clearly imagine is absolutely impossible
[Hume]
|
8649
|
Two numbers are equal if all of their units correspond to one another
[Hume]
|
4766
|
Necessity only exists in the mind, and not in objects
[Hume]
|
21291
|
There is no medium state between existence and non-existence
[Hume]
|
21293
|
Individuation is only seeing that a thing is stable and continuous over time
[Hume]
|
1207
|
Both number and unity are incompatible with the relation of identity
[Hume]
|
21290
|
Multiple objects cannot convey identity, because we see them as different
[Hume]
|
21289
|
'An object is the same with itself' is meaningless; it expresses unity, not identity
[Hume]
|
21292
|
Saying an object is the same with itself is only meaningful over a period of time
[Hume]
|
13424
|
Aristotelians propose accidents supported by substance, but they don't understand either of them
[Hume]
|
14301
|
We have no good concept of solidity or matter, because accounts of them are all circular
[Hume]
|
21296
|
If all of my perceptions were removed by death, nothing more is needed for total annihilation
[Hume]
|
1330
|
If a republic can retain identity through many changes, so can an individual
[Hume]
|
21299
|
Changing a part can change the whole, not absolutely, but by its proportion of the whole
[Hume]
|
1321
|
If identity survives change or interruption, then resemblance, contiguity or causation must unite the parts of it
[Hume]
|
21300
|
A change more obviously destroys an identity if it is quick and observed
[Hume]
|
21302
|
If a ruined church is rebuilt, its relation to its parish makes it the same church
[Hume]
|
21303
|
We accept the identity of a river through change, because it is the river's nature
[Hume]
|
21301
|
The purpose of the ship makes it the same one through all variations
[Hume]
|
1317
|
A person is just a fast-moving bundle of perceptions
[Hume]
|
1331
|
The parts of a person are always linked together by causation
[Hume]
|
1388
|
Hume gives us an interesting sketchy causal theory of personal identity
[Perry on Hume]
|
21297
|
A person is simply a bundle of continually fluctuating perceptions
[Hume]
|
1316
|
Introspection always discovers perceptions, and never a Self without perceptions
[Hume]
|
1333
|
Memory only reveals personal identity, by showing cause and effect
[Hume]
|
1332
|
We use memory to infer personal actions we have since forgotten
[Hume]
|
21305
|
Memory not only reveals identity, but creates it, by producing resemblances
[Hume]
|
21307
|
Who thinks that because you have forgotten an incident you are no longer that person?
[Hume]
|
21306
|
Causation unites our perceptions, by producing, destroying and modifying each other
[Hume]
|
21294
|
A continuous lifelong self must be justified by a single sustained impression, which we don't have
[Hume]
|
21295
|
When I introspect I can only observe my perceptions, and never a self which has them
[Hume]
|
21298
|
We pretend our perceptions are continuous, and imagine a self to fill the gaps
[Hume]
|
21304
|
Identity in the mind is a fiction, like that fiction that plants and animals stay the same
[Hume]
|
21806
|
Memory, senses and understanding are all founded on the imagination
[Hume]
|
22374
|
You can only hold people responsible for actions which arise out of their character
[Hume]
|
8257
|
Reason alone can never be a motive to any action of the will
[Hume]
|
3807
|
Reason is and ought to be the slave of the passions
[Hume]
|
3650
|
Total selfishness is not irrational
[Hume]
|
4578
|
You can't move from 'is' to 'ought' without giving some explanation or reason for the deduction
[Hume]
|
22382
|
We cannot discover vice by studying a wilful murder; that only arises from our own feelings
[Hume]
|
12417
|
Mathematicians only accept their own proofs when everyone confims them
[Hume]
|
11950
|
We have no idea of powers, because we have no impressions of them
[Hume]
|
11949
|
There may well be powers in things, with which we are quite unacquainted
[Hume]
|
11941
|
The distinction between a power and its exercise is entirely frivolous
[Hume]
|
11942
|
Power is the possibility of action, as discovered by experience
[Hume]
|
15755
|
Hume needs a notion which includes degrees of resemblance
[Shoemaker on Hume]
|
16946
|
Causation is just invariance, as long as it is described in general terms
[Quine on Hume]
|
15250
|
If impressions, memories and ideas only differ in vivacity, nothing says it is memory, or repetition
[Whitehead on Hume]
|
20189
|
Belief is a feeling, independent of the will, which arises from uncontrolled and unknown causes
[Hume]
|
21309
|
A proposition cannot be intelligible or consistent, if the perceptions are not so
[Hume]
|
21308
|
We have no impression of the self, and we therefore have no idea of it
[Hume]
|
21310
|
Does an oyster with one perception have a self? Would lots of perceptions change that?
[Hume]
|
21311
|
Are self and substance the same? Then how can self remain if substance changes?
[Hume]
|
21312
|
Perceptions are distinct, so no connection between them can ever be discovered
[Hume]
|
5323
|
Experiences are logically separate, but factually linked by simultaneity or a feeling of continuousness
[Ayer on Hume]
|
23115
|
We have no natural love of mankind, other than through various relationships
[Hume]
|