Hume’s formulation of the problem of society refers us to his theory of human understanding and the passions by means of two concepts: sympathy and institutions. I hope it is not too wrong to state that these two concepts (institutions and sympathy, and possibly many others) correspond to the problem of society in Hume’s philosophy. Further more, they are very special, because they exemplify how understanding and the passions are correlated, which is perhaps the one topic bringing unity to the philosopher’s system.
