# Section I: Justice, Whether a Natural or Artificial Virtue? explained — A Treatise of Human Nature > Chapter companion for A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume. ## What happens Hume argues that justice is not a natural virtue but an artificial one, arising from human conventions and necessity. He contends that virtuous actions derive their merit from virtuous motives, not from a regard to the virtue itself, which would be circular. He examines and rejects both public benevolence and private benevolence as the original motives for justice, concluding that the sense of justice is artificially produced through education and conventions, though it is still natural in the sense of being inseparable from the species. ## Themes in this chapter ### Artificial Virtues and Justice Hume argues that justice is an artificial virtue, arising from human conventions and necessity, not from natural motives. ### Morality as Sentiment Hume emphasizes that moral approval is based on sentiments and motives, not on reason alone, and that the sense of duty can produce actions even without the natural motive. ## Character check-ins ### David Hume Author and narrator, presenting the argument that justice is an artificial virtue. ## Key lines > It is evident, that when we praise any actions, we regard only the motives that produced them, and consider the actions as signs or indications of certain principles in the mind and temper. When we praise an action, we are really praising the motive behind it; the action itself is just a sign of that motive. _Hume establishes that moral worth lies in motives, not actions._ > To suppose, that the mere regard to the virtue of the action may be the first motive, which produced the action, and rendered it virtuous, is to reason in a circle. If we say an action is virtuous because it is done from a sense of duty, we are going in circles, because the action must already be virtuous to be recognized as such. _Hume identifies the circular reasoning in grounding virtue on duty alone._ > From all this it follows, that we have no real or universal motive for observing the laws of equity, but the very equity and merit of that observance; and as no action can be equitable or meritorious, where it cannot arise from some separate motive, there is here an evident sophistry and reasoning in a circle. We have no natural motive to be just; the only motive is the sense of justice itself, which is circular. Therefore, justice must be artificial. _Hume concludes that justice is not natural but artificial._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_treatise_of_human_nature_se/chapters/section-i-justice-whether-a-natural-or-artificial-virtue - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_treatise_of_human_nature_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_treatise_of_human_nature_se/chapters