HKB
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Often appears with: tribunals and judges · public good · natural virtues vs justice · justice as a virtue · custom and unwritten law · contracts, oaths, and obligation
Usually: argument (1) · detachment (1)
“Whereas a single act of justice, considered in itself, may often be contrary to the public good; and it is only the concurrence of mankind, in a general scheme or system of action, which is advantageous.” David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature · insight
Hume distinguishes natural virtues from justice: kindness benefits each act, but justice needs a whole legal scheme, since single decisions can harm the public; law is created by voluntary conventions.
far out of ourselves, as to give us the same pleasure or uneasiness in the characters of others, as if they had a tendency to our own advantage or loss. The only difference betwixt the natural virtues and justice lies in this, that the good, which results from the former, arises from every single act, and is the object of some natural passion: Whereas a single act of justice, considered in itself, may often be contr…