Page 15 - GALIET THE HEROIC SPECTACLE OF MORALS: Hume IV

Galiet & Galiet
The Positive Principle40 of Self-Love. Hume dreams of the Dove. To engage these social affections, Hume recommends cultivating positive and measured self-love and self- worth, or what Aristotle hails as φρονεσις or practical wisdom.41 The worthiest character traits to nourish are cheerfulness (cf), courage (cg), philosophical contemplation, (pc) benevolence (b) and modesty (m) along any tactful qualities that endeavor to sublimate the spirit, ennoble the mind dignifying one’s character with a sublime aura of what is due to oneself.42 These, he esteems, are not only mainly valued for their immediate self-pleasure (cf), but also for their utility or beneficial consequences (cg, pc, b, m). Self-confidence and strength of character mirrors social self-respect, and modesty, makes others bear you. Yet, Hume never forgets that these self-pleasing virtues and sentiments are akin and analogous to social sympathies when driven by public or private utility. The same social sympathy with human happiness or misery gives rise to both.43 In other words, having felt self- sympathy, we also feel by analogy or reflective equilibrium social sympathy towards the happiness or misery of others.
The Virtues of Positive Self-Love. Hume dissects and catalogues the Dove. Cheerfulness, when linked to moderation and decency, has highest merit since its natural contagiousness engages social good-will, sympathy and approbation.44 Constant sourness and dejection of spirit, lack of dignity and self-esteem, on the other hand, naturally cause scorn and aversion and earn the label of vice.45 “Cheerfulness,” Hume adds, “enhances our self-interest by being mirrored or approved by the community.”46 Most celebrated by poets, parents, educators, and the general public, courage is an evident foundation of virtue admired and useful to both self and society. Its peculiar elevating self-derived lustre
40 Principle in the sense of a principle of human nature that explains phenomena rather than a deontological rule. Self-Love and Benevolence are principles in this sense.
41 For Aristotle, this is having the ‘just or right amount’ of discernment according to the golden mean: virtue for him is the intermediate between passion and action. Apolophanes (Von Arnim, I, 90 considers that practical wisdom is the only virtue). Moreover, for Aristotle, as for Hume, “the man who does not rejoice in noble actions is not even good; since no one would call a man just who did not enjoy acting justly...” (Nichomachean Ethics I.8).
42 Hume exhalts Alexander the Great, Medea of Colcis, Phocion and Vitellus. Hume also alludes to Longinus’ sentiments that ‘the sublime is often nothing but the echo or image of magnanamity.’ Section 7. 82.
43 Virtue Ethics. Section 210. 86
44 Ibid. Section 7. 81
45 Ibid. Section 7. 81
46 Ibid. Section 7. 81-82
•15•