HKB
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Often appears with: public utility · property, inheritance, and title · property without scarcity · origin of justice · justice as a virtue · fate, destiny, and necessity
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1)
Hume claims justice derives solely from public utility and explains this by imagining an abundant world or perfect universal benevolence where property and promises would be unnecessary, making justice unattainable.
THAT Justice is useful to society, and consequently that PART of its merit, at least, must arise from that consideration, it would be a superfluous undertaking to prove. That public utility is the SOLE origin of justice, and that reflections on the beneficial consequences of this virtue are the SOLE foundation of its merit; this proposition, being more curious and important, will better deserve our examination and en…