The fragility of the human being and the advantage of living in society
The first reflection that Hume offers us concerns the awareness that each of us has been forced to face this year in the face of the spread of Covid-19: accepting the fragility of the human being
Dear Director,
I decided to dedicate a reflection at the end of 2020 to the great philosopher David Hume. Before reading and commenting on Hume's words, I like to briefly recall his biography. Hume was born in Edinburgh in 1711, was fatherless at the age of three and spent his childhood in Ninewells with his mother. In 1734 he moved to France, first for a few months in Reims, then in La Flèche, where he remained until 1737, working on the composition of his great work: the Treatise on human nature . The first two books of the Treatise were published in 1739, the third in 1740, all in London. The reflection I would like to share with you is taken from the pages of Book III, Section II. These are therefore thoughts that we must contextualize in a world prior to the French Revolution, the industrial revolutions and everything that happened in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. However, they seem to closely relate to the lives of humans during the pandemic of this terrible 2020.
The first reflection that Hume offers us concerns the awareness that each of us has been forced to face this year in the face of the spread of Covid-19: accepting the fragility of the human being. It continues to impress how a microscopic virus can panic the whole of humanity in a matter of weeks. But in addition to accepting this physical limitation of ours, there is also another aspect of which Hume speaks that must be adapted to our fragility: the multitude of our needs. During this pandemic, in fact, we have also been forced to become aware of how many and varied our needs are. The combination of frailty and needs has become the great problem of our day. Hume writes about this on p. 957 of his Treatise: "With none of the animals that populate the globe, nature seems to have been more cruel than towards man, considering the innumerable needs and necessities with which it has overloaded him, and the scarcity of the means that it grants him to meet these needs. In other creatures these two details generally compensate for each other. If we consider the lion as a voracious and carnivorous animal, we will easily discover that it absolutely needs it; but if we turn to his physique and temperament, his agility, his courage, his arms and his strength, we will find that his advantages are proportionate to his needs. The sheep and the ox lack all these advantages; in their appetites they are moderate, and their food is easy to obtain. Only in man can we observe at its highest degree this unnatural union of infirmity and necessity. In addition to the fact that the food required for his sustenance eludes his searches and attempts to obtain it, or at least requires some effort to produce it, he must also possess some clothing and accommodation, to defend himself against the dangers of the climate; and yet, considering him only in himself, he is endowed neither with solid arms, nor with strength, nor with other natural capacities useful to satisfy in some way so many needs ”. Today we witness in a dramatic way this coexistence of “infirmity and necessity”. On the one hand we are closed in our homes, to protect ourselves from the cold and the virus, on the other we suffer from not being able to do all that is needed to satisfy our physical and intellectual needs. However, this physical and emotional fragility of ours must push us towards a deeper reflection on the meaning of our lives.
The second reflection that I would like to share with you is a direct consequence of the first. If we consider human beings fragile creatures – says Hume – we cannot fail to see what a great advantage it is to live in society. The Scottish philosopher writes in support of this thesis: "Only for society he [the human being ed ] is able to make up for his defects, thus rising to a condition of equality towards the creatures around him, and perhaps becoming superior . Thanks to society, all his infirmities are compensated; and although in this situation his needs multiply at every moment, nevertheless his abilities are even more enhanced, leaving him in every respect more satisfied and happy than he would have been possible in his wild and lonely condition ”.
It is here that Hume decisively urges us to think about our nature and the advantages of a thought centered on us over the ego . “When each individual works alone, and for himself alone, his strength is too small to do considerable work; his labor, in fact, would be employed only to meet his various needs, and he would never reach perfection in any particular art; and since its strength and success are not always identical, the slightest failure of one of these details will inevitably be accompanied by ruin and misery ”.
For Hume, society is the solution that allows human beings to improve their living conditions and this is the point of the speech I want to share with you: "Society offers a remedy for these three drawbacks: by joining forces, our power increases ; by distributing our duties, we increase our ability; By rescuing each other, we expose ourselves less to chance and accidents. By virtue of this additional strength, ability and security, the company therefore becomes advantageous ”.
Be careful though. Hume warns us that it's not all that simple. Because, to form a society, “it is not only necessary that it be advantageous, but also that men are sensitive to its advantages; and it is impossible that, in their wild and uncultivated state, they can acquire such knowledge only through study and reflection ”. With this sentence Hume tells us two important things: the first is that to recognize the advantages of living in society we need study and reflection, the second, however, is that these two things alone are not enough to equip us with such sensitivity and raise us from the wild condition. "It is therefore a very fortunate circumstance that this need, whose remedies are remote and obscure – continues Hume in the reasoning – are accompanied by another need which, being able to be satisfied in a more immediate and obvious way, can rightly be considered as the first and original principle of human society ". For Hume "this necessity is nothing other than the natural appetite that unites the sexes together, and maintains their union until a new common bond for procreation arises between them". This new interest thus becomes – explains the philosopher in detail – “also a principle of union between parents and offspring, and thus forms a more numerous society; in which the parents govern by virtue of their superior strength and sensibility, and at the same time are controlled in the exercise of their authority by the natural affection that binds them to their children ”. Very quickly – concludes Hume – "custom and habit act on the docile minds of children, making them aware of the advantages they can obtain from society, and in the meantime they gradually prepare them to live there, smoothing out the angularity and reckless affections that prevent this association" .
Love is therefore the feeling that can foster the union between human beings, between parents and children, between grandparents and grandchildren, also crossing the family boundaries, laying the foundations of human society. Hume does not use casual words, especially when he speaks of "custom" and "habit". For him, it is precisely good habits that make us aware of the advantages we can obtain from society, preparing us from an early age to live there. Those who succeed understand that society is our greatest asset. This is why we must pursue projects that have demonstrable social value.
The crisis that is looming for 2021 unfortunately makes us think of a disintegrated society, with social relations to be rebuilt. I don't think it takes many more words to comment on Hume's advice. The reflection is valid for everyone, rulers and citizens, entrepreneurs and public employees: by joining forces, our power increases, by distributing the tasks we can be faster and more able to remedy the problems of the health and economic crisis, helping each other. else we can escape dangers and live safer. Hume continues in Book III with many other thoughts, but I think it's okay to stop here for the time being. In the meantime, I take this opportunity to wish everyone my best wishes for a good 2021.
Alessandro Albanese Ginammi
Department of Human Sciences
European University of Rome
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/david-hume-fragilita-essere-umano-pandemia/ on Thu, 31 Dec 2020 07:00:10 +0000.