Abstract

Hume, despite his disapproval of societies which enslave women, admits females to 'the rights and privileges of society' only from 'humanity' and on the strength of their 'charms'. It is argued that hume's understanding of this inequality is based on the doctrine that different virtues–physical, moral and intellectual–are appropriate to the different sexes, and that in general it is males who are and deserve to be the proprietors of families