Principles of Morals, 1

I argee with the majority of Hume scholars out there - "A Treatise Concerning Human Nature" is a much better book in terms of Philosophy. This text simply doesn't provide the same kind of detailed, scientific approach as the other one. Hume uses lots of examples, but there is little detailed explaination of his points. In fact, I wouldn't understand them as well if I hadn't read the other book first. Nonetheless, I garner that Hume is arguing in this book that morals are not dependant on reason, in fact he criticizes the ancient philosophers who thought that they were based on pure reason. He argues that everyone should take up philosophy and learn this moral code, because according to Hume, understanding morality enables us to understand our duty, in relation to other people and society at large. He also pushes the notion of benevolence again, insisting that by doing good, man receives the benefits of good coming his way. I was surprised that he didn't mention sympathy here. Hume goes on to argue (as he did before) that justice is an invention of mankind and that there are circumstances where it would not exist, for example in Eden or if there were no other people. Justice arose and arises at the demand of people, in order to maintain control, after property has been established. Allegiance, as well, is an issue of personal security - by lending one's allegiance, it strengthens society and the preservation of peace. These issues are obviously very big and ones that affect people's lives. The sense of duty regarding ethics, the ideas of Justice and Allegiance, this things have a great impact on our lives, and so are certainly worth studying and reading about.