《道德原则研究·附录三·关于正义的若干补论》第4节
The word Natural is commonly taken in so many senses and is of so loose a signification, that it seems vain to dispute whether justice be natural or not. If self-love, if benevolence be natural to man; if reason and forethought be also natural; then may the same epithet be applied to justice, order, fidelity, property, society. Men's inclination, their necessities, lead them to combine; their understanding and experience tell them that this combination is impossible where each governs himself by no rule, and pays no regard to the possessions of others: and from these passions and reflections conjoined, as soon as we observe like passions and reflections in others, the sentiment of justice, throughout all ages, has infallibly and certainly had place to some degree or other in every individual of the human species. In so sagacious an animal, what necessarily arises from the exertion of his intellectual faculties may justly be esteemed natural. [休谟自注] Natural may be opposed, either to what is unusual, miraculous or artificial. In the two former senses, justice and property are undoubtedly natural. But as they suppose reason, forethought, design, and a social union and confederacy among men, perhaps that epithet cannot strictly, in the last sense, be applied to them. Had men lived without society, property had never been known, and neither justice nor injustice had ever existed. But society among human creatures had been impossible without reason and forethought. Inferior animals, that unite, are guided by instinct, which supplies the place for reason. But all these disputes are merely verbal.
注释摘要
休谟在这一段里要做的事，是消解一个他认为没有实质内容的争论：正义到底是不是“自然的”。他的手法不是给出一个斩钉截铁的是或否，而是先把这个问题的前提——那个“自然”一词——拆开来看，拆完之后，争论本身就显得不再值得争执了。 他的起点是一个观察：“自然”这个词被用得太多、太松，以至于它至少可以对应好几种不同的对立关系。休谟自己在这个自注里列出了三组对立：自然可…