A Treatise of Human Nature · Chapter
Section III: Difficulties Solved explained
Hume addresses difficulties in his account of love and hatred, focusing on the role of intention.
What happens
Hume addresses difficulties in his account of love and hatred, focusing on the role of intention. He argues that while pleasure and uneasiness are the primary causes of these passions, the intention behind an action strengthens the relation between the action and the person, making it a more durable and effective cause. He distinguishes between constant qualities of character, which cause love or hatred independent of intention, and momentary actions, which require intention to connect them to the person. He also explores how the perception of justice or injustice can influence these passions, noting that harm from a just motive may diminish anger, but the natural tendency of uneasiness to excite hatred often leads us to view the harm-doer as criminal.
Themes in this chapter
Passions and the Self
Examines how love and hatred are caused by pleasure and uneasiness, and how intention and character qualities influence these passions.
Sympathy and Social Influence
Discusses how our judgments of others, such as enemies in war, are influenced by our own interests and national biases.
Characters to notice
- David Hume
The author, presenting his philosophical analysis of the passions of love and hatred.
- Oliver Cromwell
Mentioned as an example of an enemy general who is attributed with negative qualities like sorcery.
- Duke of Luxembourg
Mentioned alongside Cromwell as an example of an enemy general who is demonized.
Key passages
“Nothing is more evident, than that any person acquires our kindness, or is exposed to our ill-will, in proportion to the pleasure or uneasiness we receive from him, and that the passions keep pace exactly with the sensations in all their changes and variations.”
It's obvious that we like people who bring us pleasure and dislike those who cause us unease, and our feelings directly match the intensity of those sensations.
Hume's core principle for the causes of love and hatred.
“By the intention we judge of the actions, and according as that is good or bad, they become causes of love or hatred.”
We evaluate actions based on the intent behind them, and this intent determines whether we feel love or hatred toward the person.
The role of intention in moral judgment and passion.
“Here the idea of injury produces not the passion, but arises from it.”
The belief that we've been wronged doesn't create the anger; instead, the anger itself creates the belief that we've been wronged.
Hume's insight that passions can shape our perceptions of injustice.