"The great sceptic, with his profound conviction of the imperfection of all human reason and knowledge, did not expect much positive good from political organisation. He knew that the greatest political goods, peace, liberty, and justice, were in their essence negative, a protection against injury rather than positive gifts. No man strove more ardently for peace, liberty and justice. But Hume clearly saw that the further ambitions which wanted to establish some other positive justice on earth were a threat to those values... It was not from the goodness of men but from institutions which "made it the interest even of bad men, to act for the public good" that he expected peace, liberty, and justice. He knew that "every man must be supposed a knave"; though, as he adds, "it appears somewhat strange, that a maxim should be true in politics which is false in fact.""
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Atheism activistsPeople from EdinburghAcademics from ScotlandPhilosophers from ScotlandHistorians from Scotland
Original Language: English
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Sources
Friedrich Hayek, 'The Legal and Political Philosophy of David Hume' (18 July 1963), in Studies in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (1967), pp. 120-121
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/David_Hume
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David Hume
1711 – 1776
schottischer Philosoph, Ökonom und Historiker
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