cordingly it may be assumed that any theory tending to the recognition of the intimacy of the social relation was at the same time indirectly a contribution to the growth of the historical method.
That David Hume made an indirect contribution of this sort is shown by an examination of his ethical writings and political essays. At least the later form of his ethical theory, as developed in the Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, has transcended the abstract individualism of the current egoistic theories of his time.[1] The point upon which he insists is the necessarily social nature of human desires and propensities. His criticism of contemporary egoism is that, when the term egoism is stretched to include all human motives, it loses all its meaning. "Whatever contradiction may vulgarly be supposed between the selfish and social sentiments and dispositions, they are really no more opposite than selfish and ambitious, selfish and revengeful, selfish and vain. It is requisite, that there be an original propensity of some kind, in order to be a basis to self love, by giving a relish to the objects of its pursuit; and none more fit for this purpose than benevolence or humanity. The goods of fortune are spent in one gratification or another: The miser, who accumulates his annual income, and lends it out at interest, has really spent it in the gratification of his avarice. And it would be difficult to show, why a man is more a loser by a generous action, than by any other method of expence; since the utmost which he can attain, by the most elaborate selfishness, is the indulgence of some affection."[2] The real point here is not so much the denial of egoism as the only motive, for many English moralists after Cumberland had done that. The important fact is that Hume here adopts the view that man has a nature which may realize itself quite as much in acts which make
- ↑ The position of the Treatise, Part III, in this respect is a point of dispute. Cf. "Altruism in Hume's Treatise" by Professor E. B. McGilvary, The Philosophical Review, Vol. XII, pp. 272 ff.
- ↑ An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, § IX, pt. ii, The Philosophical Works of David Hume, edited by T. H. Green and T. H. Gross, Vol. IV, pp. 255 f. See also § V, pt. ii, pp. 206 ff., and Appendix II, pp. 266 f. The same idea is to be found in the essay "Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature," Vol. Ill, pp. 150 ff. Cf. also E. Albee, A History of English Utilitarianism, pp. 96 ff.
