Hume 10/1

On natural and artificial virtues. I'm going to try and keep this entry short.

A natural virtue seems to be a virtue that is somewhat universal, could apply to any society, like being good natured or intelligent would be esteemed all over the world. I got a bit lost in understanding Hume during his explanation on natural virtues, somewhere in his comments on pride.

I understood what he meant by artificial virtues, however, and that helped me to better understand what a natural virtue was and how to identify it. An artificial virtue is a man made virtue established solely based on what people thought was best for society such as "justice, laws, modesty, good-manners" (3.3.1.9) "All these are mere human contrivances for the interest of society." (3.3.1.9)

One sentence that particularly confused me was also in 3.3.1.9 "It follows, that sympathy is the source of the esteem, which we pay to all artificial virtues."