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  • Chapter 11 - Some Vexations about Character in Hume’s Treatise

  • Edited by Elizabeth S. Radcliffe, College of William and Mary, Virginia
  • Book:
    Hume's <i>A Treatise of Human Nature</i>
    Published online:
    05 December 2025
    Print publication:
    08 January 2026, pp 191-205

  • Summary

    This chapter addresses three questions that arise from Hume’s observations about character in the Treatise: whether Hume can talk about enduring traits that constitute character, given his depiction of the mind as in flux; whether character is “objective” or a creation of spectators; and whether Hume’s treatment of virtue and vice is only descriptive of how we derive our moral categories. I argue, first, that since Hume distinguishes between the feeling of a motive and its causal efficacy, he can observe that, while feelings may be fluid, character is determined by which has the force to produce action consistently. Second, the contingency of moral categories on human nature is not the same as creation of the features that fall under those categories. Third, Hume both describes our process of moral discrimination and offers guidance about making judgments of virtue and vice. However, he is not defending his view of moral character but employing the norms that arise from human practices.