A Treatise of Human Nature · Chapter
Section III: Of the Rules Which Determine Property explained
Hume examines the rules that determine property, arguing that the general rule of stability of possession must be supplemented by specific rules to assign particular goods to particular persons.
What happens
Hume examines the rules that determine property, arguing that the general rule of stability of possession must be supplemented by specific rules to assign particular goods to particular persons. He identifies four main rules: occupation (first possession), prescription (long possession), accession (connected inferior objects), and succession (inheritance). These rules are not based on utility or fitness but on the imagination and custom, reflecting the artificial nature of justice and property.
Themes in this chapter
Artificial Virtues and Justice
Property is an artificial virtue, derived from conventions and rules of justice, not from natural instincts.
Custom and General Rules
Custom and general rules determine property, as seen in the rules of occupation, prescription, and succession.
Association of Ideas
The imagination and association of ideas play a key role in connecting objects to persons, as in accession and succession.
Characters to notice
- David Hume
Author and narrator, analyzing the rules of property and justice.
Key passages
“The possession of all external goods is changeable and uncertain; which is one of the most considerable impediments to the establishment of society, and is the reason why, by universal agreement, express or tacit, men restrain themselves by what we now call the rules of justice and equity.”
Because external goods are unstable, people agree to restrain themselves through rules of justice to enable society.
Highlights the artificial nature of justice and property.
“A wild boar, that falls into our snares, is deemed to be in our possession, if it be impossible for him to escape. But what do we mean by impossible? How do we separate this impossibility from an improbability?”
The boundary between possession and non-possession is often vague, as with a wild boar in a snare.
Illustrates the difficulty in defining possession precisely.
“Possession during a long tract of time conveys a title to any object. But as it is certain, that, however everything be produced in time, there is nothing real that is produced by time; it follows, that property being produced by time, is not anything real in the objects, but is the offspring of the sentiments, on which alone time is found to have any influence.”
Long possession (prescription) gives title, but since time itself produces nothing real, property is a product of sentiment, not reality.
Emphasizes the sentimental basis of property.