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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 August 2009
Hume's concern to promote public virtue is a central element of his philosophical project which deserves more attention than it has received. This article examines one of his most focused efforts at public moralism: his largely forgotten autobiography, My Own Life. By attending to its account of how Hume employed his vanity and ambition in his pursuit of fame and fortune—and discovered such virtues as temperance, industry, moderation, and independence in the process—it is argued that My Own Life was intended to serve as a “mirror-for-citizen.” for citizens of modern commercial republics, offering a model of civic virtue and worldly success for them to emulate. To show this Hume's didactic autobiography is compared to that of his friend Benjamin Franklin, which may have served as a model for Hume's.
An earlier version of this essay was presented to the University of Chicago's Political Theory Workshop on 22 January 2001. I am indebted to the workshop's participants, and especially to Kristin Balisi, Lauren Brubaker, Ralph Lerner, and Eric Schliesser, for their suggestions. Thanks are also due to Rick Sher and The Review's anonymous readers for their very helpful comments.
1. On Hume's turn to more literary methods of presentation, see Phillipson, Nicholas, “Hume as Moralist: A Social Historian's Perspective,” in Philosophers of the Enlightenment, ed. Brown, S. C. (Sussex: Harvester Press, 1979), pp. 140–61Google Scholar.
2. Huxley, T. H., for example, insists that Hume “exhibits no small share of the craving after mere notoriety and vulgar success,” in Hume (New York: Harper Brothers, 1879), p. 10Google Scholar; quoted in Smith, Norman Kemp, The Philosophy of David Hume (London: Macmillan and Co., 1941), p. 519CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
3. On Hume's concern to encourage the growth of that “middling ran.” in commercial society which he thinks necessary to counterbalance established political authority, see “Of Refinement in the Arts,” in Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, ed. Miller, Eugene F. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1985), p. 277Google Scholar; Capaldi, Nicholas, “The Preservation of Liberty,” in Liberty in Hume's History of England, ed. Capaldi, and Livingston, Donald W. (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic, 1990), pp. 203–207CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Forbes, Duncan, “Hume and the Scottish Enlightenment,” in Philosophers of the Enlightenment, p. 102Google Scholar.
4. “Of Parties in General,” in Essays, p. 55Google Scholar.
5. To ensure a wide circulation for My Own Life, Hume requested of Adam Smith, his literary executor, that it should be sent to “the Proprietors of my other Works to be prefixed to any future Edition of them.” He repeated his request in a codicil to his will, insisting that My Own Life “be prefixed to the first Edition of my Works, printed after my Deat.” (The Letters of David Hume, ed. Greig, J. Y. T. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932], 2: 318, 453Google Scholar).
6. Mossner, Ernest C., The Life of David Hume, 2d ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1970), p. 591Google Scholar. Jerome Christensen likewise reads My Own Life as “Hume's effort to dictate to futurit.” and thereby secure posthumous fame, but without emphasizing Hume's religious ideas; see his Practicing Enlightenment: Hume and the Formation of a Literary Career (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), pp. 17, 45–52Google Scholar. In The Moral Animus of David Hume (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1990Google Scholar), Donald T. Siebert, like Mossner, finds in Hume's autobiography his “parting shot at the narrow-minded religionists,” but also finds in it much more besides; noting (but not pursuing) its similarity to Franklin's, work, and beautifully capturing its “sportive humo.” and its subtle understanding of pride (pp. 197–212).Google Scholar
7. “Of Essay-Writing,” in Essays, p. 535Google Scholar. My understanding of Hume's attempts to bridge the gap between philosophy and common life owes much to Livingston, Philosophical Melancholy and Delirium: Hume's Pathology of Philosophy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998Google Scholar); and Danford, John, David Hume and the Problem of Reason: Recovering the Human Sciences (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990CrossRefGoogle Scholar).
8. Pocock, J. G. A. observes that in his discussions of patronage Hume was led “to reject the republican ideal that government must rest on a foundation of virtue, and to concede that passion and interest must be recognized and even harnessed.” (“Hume and the American Revolution: The Dying Thoughts of a North Briton,” in Virtue, Commerce, and History [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985], p. 132CrossRefGoogle Scholar). In some sense this is overstated; Hume never rejects virtue as the foundation of government—he merely emphasizes the virtues of self-interest over the virtues of disinterestedness.
9. “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Essays, p. 135Google Scholar.
10. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals in Selby-Bigge's, L. A. edition of the two Enquiries, 3d rev. ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 216Google Scholar.
11. See Hume, to Robertson, William, Summer 1759, in Letters, 1: 315–16Google Scholar.
12. Franklin, to Strahan, William, 27 10 1771Google Scholar, in The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, eds. Willcox, William B. et al. , (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974), 18: 236Google Scholar. A full account of Franklin's visit in Edinburgh can be found in Nolan, J. Bennett, Benjamin Franklin in Scotland and Ireland, 1759 and 1771 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1938CrossRefGoogle Scholar).
13. Hume and Franklin had shared work before the visit. In 1760 Franklin sent several pieces to Hume, including at least his “Observations Concerning the Increase of Mankind.” In the same letter in which he acknowledges having sent Hume these essays, he also mentions having read Hume's “excellent Essay on the Jealousy of Commerce,” and promises to send a “little Philosophical essa.” in return (Franklin, to Hume, , 27 09 1760Google Scholar, in Papers, 9:227–30Google Scholar). The regard was mutual. Writing in 1762, Hume honored Franklin by observing that “America has sent us many good things, gold, silver, sugar, tobacco, indigo, etc.; but you are the first philosopher, and indeed the first great man of letters, for whom we are beholden to he.” (Hume, to Franklin, , 10 05 1762Google Scholar, in Letters, 1: 357Google Scholar). Hume's regard would be further underscored in a letter of 1773, in which he observed that “the best Book, that has been writ by any Englishman these thirty Years (for Dr Franklyn is an American) is Tristram Shandy, bad as it i.” (Hume, to Strahan, , 30 01 1773Google Scholar, in Letters, 2:269Google Scholar). Written only thirteen months after Franklin's visit to Edinburgh, the ironic compliment tempts one to wonder whether Hume has the Autobiography in mind here.
14. See the “Epistle Dedicatory” to Bacon's, Essays in The Works of Francis Bacon, ed. Spedding, James and Ellis, Robert Leslie (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co., 1865), 12:77Google Scholar. Franklin, quotes this in his “To the Royal Academy of *****,” in Benjamin Franklin, Writings, ed. Lemay, J. A. Leo (New York: Library of America, 1987), p. 954Google Scholar.
15. My Own Life, in Essays, p. xxxiGoogle Scholar. All subsequent citations are to this edition and are given in roman numerals in the text.
16. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, in Writings, p. 1307Google Scholar. All subsequent citations are to this edition and are given in the text in Arabic numerals.
17. See Lawrence, , Studies in Classic American Literature (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1978), pp. 15–27Google Scholar; Maclntyre, , After Virtue (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984), p. 185Google Scholar; Weber, , The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (London: Routledge, 1992), pp. 48–54Google Scholar.
18. See also “The Sceptic,” in Essays, p. 161Google Scholar, and Hume's, discussion of “anatomists” and “painter.” in the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, also in Selby-Bigge's, edition of the two Enquiries, p. 10Google Scholar.
19. See Lemay, J. A. Leo, “The Theme of Vanity in Franklin's Autobiography,” in Reappraising Benjamin Franklin: A Bicentennial Perspective (Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press, 1993), pp. 372–87Google Scholar.
20. A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. Selby-Bigge, L. A., 2d rev. ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978), p. 491Google Scholar.
21. Though he admits that even advocates of the selfish system can lead “irreproachable live.”: see Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. 296Google Scholar.
22. “Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature,” in Essays, p. 86Google Scholar;cf.Smith's, Adam comments on the “real love of true glory” as good but second-best in The Theory of Moral Sentiments, eds. Raphael, D. D. and Macfie, A. L. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1984), VII.ii.4.8, p. 309Google Scholar.
23. See Hume, to Hutcheson, Francis, 17 09 1739, in Letters, 1: 34Google Scholar. Students of Franklin will note that after reading the Whole Duty of Man Hume undertook to develop his own catalog of vices for the purposes of self-examination; see Mossner, , Life of David Hume, p. 34Google Scholar, and cf. Autobiography, pp. 1383–8Google Scholar. The Whole Duty of Man was a popular book of Christian moralism.
24. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. 236Google Scholar.
25. See also Hume to Elliot, Gilbert, march or 04 1751, in Letters, 1:158.Google Scholar
26. Hume to Home, Henry, 13 02 1739, in Letters, 1:26.Google Scholar
27. See the “Advertisement” printed at the front of Selby-Bigge's, edition of the Enquiries, p. 2.Google Scholar
28. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. 169.Google Scholar See also Bacon, , Advancement of Learning, in Works, 6: 259ff.Google Scholar
29. Lecture, Smith 24 in Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles-Lettres, ed. Bryce, J. C. (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1983), p. 146;Google Scholar cf. Aristotle Rhetoric, 1356b32–1357a4; 1395b20–1396a3.
30. Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, pp. 5–7.Google Scholar
31. The Theory of Moral Sentiments, VI.iii.46, p. 259;Google Scholar cf. Rousseau, , Emile, or On Education, trans. Bloom, Allan (New York: Basic Books, 1979), p. 202.Google Scholar
32. Again a project suggested by Smith, : “The superior wisdom of the good and knowing man directs others in the management of his [read: their] affairs, and spurrs them on to imitate and emulate his industry and activity.” (Lectures on Jurisprudence, eds. Meek, R. L., Raphael, D. D., and Stein, P. G. [Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1982], A vi.20, p. 338).Google Scholar
33. See also the praises of industry and frugality in Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, pp. 237–38.Google Scholar
34. On Franklin's initial appeal to his audience's vanity and ambition as means of inducing them to virtue, see Forde, Steven, “Ben Franklin, Hero,” in The Noblest Minds: Fame, Honor, and the American Founding, ed. McNamara, Peter (Lanham, MD: Rowman and littlefield, 1999), p. 48;Google ScholarHowe, Daniel Walker, Making the American Self: Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1997), pp. 27–33;Google Scholar and Lerner, Ralph, “Franklin, Spectator,” in The Thinking Revolutionary (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987), pp. 46ff.Google Scholar
35. Siebert also points to Hume's equanimity, and notes its conjunction with benevolence (Moral Animus of David Hume, pp. 203–204).Google Scholar Franklin's and Hume's shared emphasis on optimism and hope is another point of connection with the modern project of their mutual mentor; see Bacon, , The New Organon, ed. Anderson, Fulton H. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1960), Book I, aphorisms 113–14, pp. 104–105.Google Scholar
36. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. 275.Google Scholar
37. “Of Simplicity and Refinement in Writing,” in Essays, p. 192.Google Scholar As noted by Eugene Miller in his edition of the Essays, the Latin is a quotation from Horace, Epistles 1.18.103,Google Scholar translated by H. Rushton Fairclough in the Loeb edition as “the pathway of a life unnoticed.”
38. The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688 (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1983), 6: 544.Google Scholar
39. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. 266.Google Scholar But Hume of course insists that it is authors of works of practical morality (such as My Own Life), and not abstract reasoners, who enjoy the most durable and just fame; see the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, p. 7.Google Scholar This only compounds the irony noted by Christensen—that Hume's fame is that of a philosopher rather than an independent man of letters (practicing Enlightenment, p. 49n).Google Scholar
40. Smith, to Strahan, , 9 11 1776,Google Scholar reprinted in Essays, pp. xlv–xlvi;Google Scholar Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 1124a18; cf. Theory of Moral Sentiments, VII. ii.4.10, pp. 310–11.Google Scholar
41. Smith, to Strahan, in Essays, p. xlix;Google Scholar cf. Plato Phaedo 117c–118a, as noted in Berns, Laurence, “Aristotle and Adam Smith on Justice: Cooperation Between Ancients and Moderns?” Review of Metaphysics 48 (1994): 90.Google Scholar Franklin's friends of course think him as a wise man as well; see Autobiography, p. 1375.Google Scholar
42. Theory of Moral Sentiments, VI. iii. 25, p. 248.Google Scholar
43. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. 177.Google Scholar
44. Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, p. 176.Google Scholar
45. On Duties, trans. Atkins, M. A. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), I: 28, p. 12;Google Scholar cf. Theory of Moral Sentimets, VI. ii. 3.6, p. 237.Google Scholar It is worth noting that while Smith names Hume as the model wise and virtuous man, Hume names Cicero and Bacon; see Essays, p. 83.Google Scholar
46. “Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences,” in Essays, p. 113;Google Scholar cf. “Of the Middle Station of Life,” in Essays, p. 549.Google Scholar
47. “Of glory,” in The Complete Essays of Montaigne, trans. Frame, Donald M. (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1958), p. 469.Google Scholar
48. Siebert, , Moral Animus of David Hume, p. 200.Google Scholar
