Jump to content
Journal

Hume maintains a system of four passions: two agreeable, two uneasy, of which the object is either self or the other.

That I may be sure I am not mistaken in this experiment, I remove first one relation; then another; and find, that each removal destroys the passion, and leaves the object perfectly indifferent.

David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, book II, part II, section II

A compliment naturally flatters one’s pride. Given to someone else, it is not a prideful passion, but an amourous passion, at least of kindness, that is awakened.

But I am not content with this. I make a still farther trial; and instead of removing the relation, I only change it for one of a different kind. I suppose the virtue to belong to my companion, not to myself; and observe what follows from this alteration. I immediately perceive the affections to wheel about, and leaving pride, where there is only one relation, viz. of impressions, fall to the side of love, where they are attracted by a double relation of impressions and ideas. By repeating the same experiment, in changing anew the relation of ideas, I bring the affections back to pride; and by a new repetition I again place them at love or kindness.

Kindness is therefore possible, when a certain virtue or a quality is moved towards someone else (someone we admire, or endear). Love can be compatible with pride, and pride with kindness (unlike what has been stated previously.