On Hume’s Criticism Of Early Modern Natural Law

Although the concept of "Natural Law" was first put forward by the Stoics in ancient Greece and Rome,however,in a sense,the thought of "Natural Law" can be traced back to the origin of ancient Greek philosophy.Natural Law theory intends to provide the basis of "law" for the justice of human society or just society.In the ancient western philosophy,the Stoics regarded the natural law as the God or the reason of the universe outside human beings,and believed that it determined the equality of human beings through human nature,and a just society was a society based on the equality of everyone based on natural law.This Stoic idea was further developed in the Middle Ages by the Scholastics on the basis of Christianity.Thomas fully systematized the ancient natural law theory on the basis of Augustine’s natural law thought.His natural law not only served for his theology and feudal system,but also included the mutual equality of man in the presence of God.In modern times,after got the continuation and development of Natural Law thoughts of Natural Law in ancient inherit it,at the same time,both in content enriched the content of modern bourgeois demands(such as freedom and property rights),also in form to people instead of god or the final carrier of the external world as Natural Law,embodies the modern bourgeoisie for the promotion of the position of people.Hume,however,as the British and consolidate the bourgeois regime era of bourgeois philosopher,he was no longer satisfied with the social justice founded on the basis of natural law on the basis of practice,he not only against the justice society is built on god or external world,on the basis of natural law,but also against the justice society is based on human reason(innate)on the basis of natural law itself,in his view,the people,as a life in the historical development of talents with initiative choice ability is the final regulations and selectors of social justice,they actually choose in the historical development and with the consent of the society is the social justice,In this just society,people have rights such as life,liberty,equality,private property,and so on.Based on this understanding,Hume effectively criticized the natural law thought of the western bourgeoisie in early modern times,especially Hobbes and Locke,by explaining his own thought of the origin of social justice.Although Hume’s just society is the just society understood by the bourgeoisie in the final analysis,it is still correct that he regards human beings or those who have the right and option to actively define as the basis of social justice.Based on the above viewpoint,this article discusses the criticism by Hume in early modern western natural law,besides introduction and conclusion,it is divided into three parts: the first part is the birth of the early(mainly)in modern natural law,including grotius,Hobbes and Locke and others natural law thoughts,discussing these philosophers of natural law theory,the paper from two aspects of form and content to compare the ancient modern natural law and natural law(early),points out the modern(early)of Hume’s criticism as the object of the features of natural law in content and form.The second part discusses Hume’s criticism of natural law in the early modern period on the basis of empiricism,including the analysis of the following three aspects: the analysis of the object of criticism,the basis of criticism and the content of criticism.The third part is the author’s critical reflection on Hume’s "theory of criticizing Natural Law",which aims to reveal the theoretical gains and losses of Hume’s related thoughts.