Hume’s Critics: Kames and Reid

Abstract Hume’s view of justice was criticized by three other notable Scottish philosophers, all of whom nevertheless recognized his pre-eminence as a thinker. Lord Karnes and Thomas Reid both attacked Hume’s thesis that justice is artificial. Adam Smith said nothing about that but criticized the view that justice depends on utility, clearly having Hume in mind but without naming him. Henry Home, Lord Karnes, a kinsman of Hume, reached distinction as a judge and jurist, and some reputation as a moral philosopher. HisEssays on the Principles of Morality and Natural Religion,first published in 1751 with a revised second edition in 1758, include a chapter (Essay II, ch. 7) on justice and injustice, designed to refute Hume’s view in theTreatisethat justice is an artificial virtue. Surprisingly for a judge, Karnes begins by defining justice almost as narrowly as Hume: ‘Justice is that virtue which guards property, and gives authority to covenants.’ But perhaps this is simply because his purpose in that chapter is to criticize Hume and so he can confine himself to those aspects of justice discussed by Hume. Earlier references to justiceen passantin chapter 3 suggest the wider, though vaguer, view that justice is ‘abstaining from injury’.