A Treatise of Human Nature · Chapter
Section VIII: Of Malice and Envy explained
Hume examines the passions of malice and envy, explaining how they arise from the principle of comparison.
What happens
Hume examines the passions of malice and envy, explaining how they arise from the principle of comparison. He argues that we judge objects and people not by their intrinsic worth but by comparing them with others, and that this comparison is influenced by the relation between the objects. Envy is triggered by proximity in merit or relation, while malice is an unprovoked desire to produce evil for the pleasure of comparison. Hume also discusses how general rules and the association of ideas affect these passions, and how even self-directed malice can occur through comparison with past or present states.
Themes in this chapter
Sympathy and Social Influence
Hume discusses how comparison with others' fortunes affects our passions, leading to malice and envy.
Custom and General Rules
The principle of adherence to general rules is invoked to explain how comparisons can impose on the senses and influence judgments.
Passions and the Self
Examines how passions like malice and envy are tied to self-evaluation and comparison with others.
Characters to notice
- David Hume
Author of the treatise, presenting his analysis of malice and envy.
- Mr. Prior
Mentioned as an example of an author who successfully joined different styles in one volume.
- Guicciardin
Referenced for his remark about civil wars and the preference for foreign enemies.
Key passages
“So little are men governed by reason in their sentiments and opinions, that they always judge more of objects by comparison than from their intrinsic worth and value.”
People are not guided by reason in their feelings and beliefs; they judge things based on comparison rather than their true value.
Hume introduces the principle of comparison as central to human judgment.
“A small degree of any quality, succeeding a greater, produces the same sensation, as if less than it really is, and even sometimes as the opposite quality.”
A small amount of something after a larger amount feels even smaller, sometimes like the opposite quality.
Illustrates the effect of comparison on sensations and passions.
“The only difference betwixt these passions lies in this, that envy is excited by some present enjoyment of another, which by comparison diminishes our idea of our own: Whereas malice is the unprovoked desire of producing evil to another, in order to reap a pleasure from the comparison.”
Envy arises from another's enjoyment that makes our own seem less, while malice is the desire to harm another without provocation to gain pleasure from the comparison.
Hume distinguishes between envy and malice.