The Systematic Theory of Theory of the Treatise of Human Nature

The Hume of the later Enquiry Concerning the Principles ofMorals proposes to follow a very simple “scientific” method, which consists of collecting examples of what everyone considers virtue, examining and comparing the circumstances surrounding each virtue, and then inferring general principles common to the virtues. He contrasts this method with “the other scientific method, where a general abstract principle is first established, and is afterwards branched out into a variety of inferences and conclusions.” This other method “may be more perfect in itself, but suits less the imperfection of human nature, and is a common source of illusion and mistake.”2 This “other scientific method” is the one Hume uses in the Treatise of Human Nature. As we noted in the previous chapter, instead of conducting his thought experiments “from a cautious observation of human life, and tak[ing] them as they appear in the common course of the world, by men’s behavior in company, in affairs, and in their pleasures” (T. Introduction, last sentence, p. xxiii), Hume chooses an introspective method of examining the experiences of his own mind. Hume aims in the Treatise to establish a few general abstract principles from his own mental experiences and then applies them to the understanding, the passions and morals. This is the theory of theory in the Treatise.