If we inquire concerning the reasons for this approval and disapproval, we will find that usefulness or the lack of it is the explanation which can be given for the different attitudes which are expressed. The actions which are approved are the ones which promote the happiness and satisfy the essential needs of people. The ones which are disapproved tend to prevent the realization of these ends. It is important to note that it is the happiness and welfare of other persons that determine one's attitude as well as that which pertains to his own.
The utility of one's actions as a means for bringing about the happiness and general welfare of the entire community in which one lives is for Hume the essential criterion of goodness. This emphasis on utility, which characterizes the whole of his moral philosophy, has led some people to classify him as a utilitarian. Whether this classification is correct will depend on the meaning which is given to that term. It was employed by Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill to designate that type of ethical philosophy which finds its standard of goodness in the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of persons. Hume does appear to have much in common with that doctrine, but he differs from it in one important respect: While he agrees with them in recognizing happiness as one of the things that are good, he does not admit that it is the only thing that is good. Human beings are complex organisms, and their total welfare includes more than the satisfaction of the one need for happiness.
There are some aspects of Hume's moral philosophy that have led certain of his critics to believe that he advocated a purely selfish as well as individualistic conception of morals. This conclusion has been based on the fact that he derives the principles of morals from the feelings rather than reason. A person's feelings are always private, and since they are so constituted that they tend to produce an attitude of approval toward actions which are favorable to one's own interests and one of disapproval toward anything which is contrary to those interests, it would seem to indicate that morality is nothing more than following one's own personal desires.
