T 3.2.6.1
SBN 526 · cited directly by 1 paper
WE have now run over the three fundamental laws of nature, that of the stability of possession, of its transference by consent, and of the performance of promises. 'Tis on the strict observance of those three laws, that the peace and security of human society entirely depend; nor is there any possibility of establishing a good correspondence among men, where these are neglected. Society is absolutely necessary for the well-being of men; and these are as necessary to the support of society. Whatever restraint they may impose on the passions of men, they are the real offspring of those passions, and are only a more artful and more refin'd way of satisfying them. Nothing is more vigilant and inventive than our passions; and nothing is more obvious, than the convention for the observance of these rules. Nature has, therefore, trusted this affair entirely to the conduct of men, and has not plac'd in the mind any peculiar original principles, to determine us to a set of actions, into which the other principles of our frame and constitution were sufficient to lead us. And to convince us the more fully of this truth, we may here stop a moment, and from a review of the preceding reasonings may draw some new arguments, to prove that those laws, however necessary, are entirely artificial, and of human invention; and consequently that justice is an artificial, and not a natural virtue.
Who cites it
1 of 1 paper cites this paragraph directly; the rest reach it through a page or section range. Snippets are the words around each citation.
| Paper | Cited as | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Ainslie 1995 | (T 484, 526) T 3.2.1.18 to T 3.2.6.2 (6 paragraphs) Citation pattern | …eniences in the strictness of the idea of property contained in the first "law of nature" (T 484, 526) are recognized, the… |
| (T 526) T 3.2.6 (2 paragraphs) Citation pattern | …igation of promises. These artifices, too, are nothing but "more artful and refin'd ways" (T 526) of satisfying natur… |