The Puzzle of Cooperation
Nature appears to have exercised, according to Hume, particular ‘cruelty’ towards human beings (T 3.2.2.2/484). When one surveys the rest of the animal kingdom, one finds a harmonious balance between what creatures want and what they are able to do. Lions have voracious appetites, but they have the power to satisfy them; sheep have simple desires, but these are easily fulfilled. It is in man alone that we discover, as Hume puts it, an ‘unnatural conjunction of infirmity, and of necessity’ (T 3.2.2.2/485). Upon further reflection, however, we can see that nature has provided us with a remedy for this unfortunate predicament: social cooperation (T 3.2.2.3/485).
’Tis by society alone he is able to supply his defects, and raise himself up to an equality with his fellow-creatures…By the conjunction of forces, our power is augmented: By the partition of employments, our ability encreases: And by mutual succour we are less expos'd to fortune and accidents. (T 3.2.2.3/485)
Social cooperation allows us to compensate for our feeble frames. We are not the fastest, strongest, or sturdiest creatures, but we make up for these shortcomings by joining forces with one another to an extent unmatched in the rest of the animal kingdom.
This raises an important question: What is it about human beings that allows us to cooperate on such a vast scale? Hume recognizes that the origin of human cooperation is a puzzle.