Artificial Virtues and Justice

Justice is presented as an artificial virtue, arising from human conventions and self-interest rather than natural instinct, to stabilize property and society.

Hume references justice as potentially artificial, with property defined in relation to justice and moral equity.

Hume hints that some virtues may be artificial, and that the sense of virtue may be partly artificial, though he defers the full discussion.

The central theme of the chapter, arguing that justice is a human invention, not a natural instinct.

Hume argues that justice is an artificial virtue, arising from human conventions and necessity, not from natural motives.