Justice and utility:

A comparative study of Hume's and Smith's theory of justice

Abstract

Both utility and sympathy are the key concepts in Hume's and Smith's theory of justice. Whereas Hume and Smith hold the same view that the rules of justice have utility, their accounts differ in terms of the role of utility and sympathy. In this paper, after the careful analysis of Hume's and Smith's arguments, I would like to propose the following interpretation. Hume explains the evolution of the rules of justice and justifies them based on utility; so sympathy only plays a secondary role in explaining the moral approbation of justice as a virtue. But in Smith's theory it is sympathy that is used to explain the evolution and the enforcement of the rules of justice, and utility plays a part in justification of some kind of punishment and evaluation of laws and social policies.