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Cultivating Strength of Mind: Hume on the Government of the Passions and Artificial Virtue
- Hume Studies
- Hume Society
- Volume 41, Number 2, November 2015
- pp. 201-229
- 10.1353/hms.2015.0009
- Article
- Additional Information
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Abstract:
Several authors have recently noted Hume's relative silence on the virtue of strength of mind and how it is developed. In this paper I suggest that Hume had good reasons for this silence, and I argue that Hume's discussion of artificial virtue, especially the virtue of allegiance, reveals a complex view of the limitations on human efforts at self-reform. Further, it reveals the need for government and externally-imposed regulative structures to enable the development of strength of mind. I argue that because of this, strength of mind awkwardly straddles Hume's distinction between natural and artificial virtue. I conclude that, in comparison with traditional models of self-control, Humean strength of mind is indirect, artificial, and social.