Title
The Vigorous and Doux Soldier: David Hume's Military Defence of Commerce
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-2018
Abstract
If war is an inevitable condition of human nature, as David Hume suggests, then what type of societies can best protect us from defeat and conquest? For David Hume, commerce decreases the relative cost of war and promotes technological military advances as well as martial spirit. Commerce therefore makes a country militarily stronger and better equipped to protect itself against attacks than any other kind of society. Hume does not assume commerce would yield a peaceful world nor that commercial societies would be militarily weak, as many contemporary scholars have argued. On the contrary, for him, military might is a beneficial consequence of commerce.
Identifier
10.1080/01916599.2018.1509225
Publisher
Routledge
Repository Citation
Paganelli, M. P., & Schumacher, R. (2018). The vigorous and doux soldier: David Hume's military defence of commerce. History of European Ideas, 44(8), 1141-1152. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916599.2018.1509225
Publication Information
History of European Ideas