David Hume On Luxury And Generosity

The pursuit of luxury is one that enhances the gratification of the senses; it is this refinement that can be innocent or vicious. According to Hume, the pursuit of innocent indulgence is permitted, but when they are pursued at the expense of some virtue they become a vice. Vicious luxury is a vice in the way it “engrosses all a man’s expenses and leaves no ability for such acts if duty and generosity as are required by his situation and fortune” (P. 279). The distinction between the two luxuries is the main argument of his constituents on why luxury is believed to be both immoral and corrupting within society. However, the distinction between the two is not as much of importance for Hume. As he believes that individuals are just inherently corrupt from within, and that commercial development is better off with innocent and vicious luxury than
The pursuit of luxury is vital to the prosperity in society, as Hume said, “wherever luxury ceases to be innocent, it also ceases to be beneficial” (P.269). Hume argues that luxury is acceptable from a moral standpoint as well as a political and economical one. However, when it comes to the distinction between innocent and vicious luxury, Hume believes Magistrates face a dilemma between which situation is more advantageous for society. Hume proclaimed that, “the magistrate cannot cure every vice by substituting a virtue in its place, it is very often he can only cure one vice by another, and in that case, he ought to prefer what is least pernicious to society” (P. 280). In the end, while “vicious luxury is the source of many ills, it is