world and human nature with a historical lens even though his theory betrays an attachment
to the present. Hume was operating in an environment characterized by an intense debate
between Whigs and Tories defined by historical arguments. 23 Therefore, his study of history
had the purpose of decoding the present. This constancy of human nature is a methodological
principle- from which his slogan in the Treatise ‘consult common experience’ is derived - which
aims, by identifying what indeed persists, at revealing and understanding those rare moments
that bring about fundamental change. Hume, when using the term ‘human nature’ , is often
referring to archetypal principles, modes of understanding and routes of action that remain
the same while, nonetheless, morals can change but only gradually. In this manner, we can
expect the same reaction to a capital conviction from the accused across the ages but the fact
that the manners of men differ across space and time afford, as Hume allows, ‘room for many
general observations concerning the gradual change of our sentiments and inclinations, and
the different maxims which prevail in the different ages of human creatu res’. 24
Hume’s understanding of human nature is much more scientific in the exten t that it
can be understood, pretty much explicitly, as a pure faculty of the evolving mind and as such
as a continuation of Locke’s understanding based on reason. Hume concurs with Locke in such
notion as the plausibility of society without government and the right to resistance (although
circumscribed), but aims at demonstrating that they are not the human sentiments and
instincts that account for the creation of social institutions. 25 Hume’s scientific approach
indicates that reason-meaning understanding- is just the vehicle that passions (food, shelter,
sex, intimacy) use in order to be satisfied. Passions are based on self-interest which when left
23 McClelland, p. 409. 24 S.K. Wertz, ‘Hume, History, and Human Nature’, Journal of the History of Ideas, 36.3 (1975), 481-496 (pp. 489-496). 25 Stephen Buckle and Dario Castiglione, ‘HUME'S CRITIQUE OF THE CONTRACT THEORY’, History of Political Thought, 12.3 (1991), 457-480 (pp. 461-467).
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