- 著者
-
林 誓雄
- 出版者
- 日本哲学会
- 雑誌
- 哲学 (ISSN:03873358)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2012, no.63, pp.249-263_L14, 2012 (Released:2012-10-16)
- 参考文献数
- 16
Hume insists that the rules of justice are established by a convention, that is, ‘a general sense of common interest’, not by our ‘promise’ or ‘consent’ as the social contract theory advocates. Nonetheless, Hume's theory is sometimes regarded as a kind of social contract theory. Furthermore, Hume is often interpreted as a kind of utilitarian, since he says that utility is the chief foundation of justice. One of the reasons why such interpretations arise, in my view, is that Hume uses the words ‘interest’ or ‘utility’ very ambiguously in his arguments. Because of this ambiguous usage, it is difficult for us to understand clearly the specific contents of such phrases as ‘common interest’, ‘public interest’, and ‘public utility’. As the result, the readers of Hume's works are put into confusion. In this paper, I attempt to clarify what Hume means by these terms in order to resolve this problem. First, considering the relation of ‘common interest’ and ‘public interest’, I maintain that they are different kinds of interest. Second, I turn to consider what Hume means by ‘public interest’. In considering ‘public interest’, I draw attention to the distinction of societies which Hume makes: the distinction between a small society (such as the family) and a large one. Given this distinction, we will see that there are two kinds of ‘public interest’: one applicable to a small society and the other to a large one. Finally, I show that what Hume means by ‘public utility’ is not ‘public interest’ but ‘the common interest’ by which we human beings establish the rules of justice.