The space and time of human relationships in the philosophies of David Hume and Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Abstract

We shall be concerned in this study with the grounds and nature of human relationships as they are conceived in the thought of Hume and Rousseau. By implication, therefore, the notion of the grounds and nature of human relationships varies from person to person. We can hardly think otherwise than that our notions of these relationships are determined by our views on human beings, so that when we contemplate human relationships, we are at once involved in questions about human beings as human beings and quite apart from their relationships to one another. Questions about human beings which will be of the greatest importance to us, will be those about human personality and human nature. We shall hold that both Hume and Rousseau treat human relationships in terms of human nature rather than in terms of human personality, and this study is, broadly speaking, a study of the consequences for the individual and society of this course in their thought. Our contention will be that they take this course in their treatment of human relationships because they adopt a specific space and time, the space and time of the science of their day.