In An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Hume speaks about the relationship between justice and utility and its connection to sentiment humanity and the ability to make moral distinctions. He first establishes the existence of justice in the world and then observes and analyzes its relationship to utility. Hume then makes the association between sentiment humanity and the ability to make moral judgements. He ultimately links this ability to the acquisition of justice. Hume's explanation of the conjunction begins with his empirical methods of observation.
             Hume states that all knowledge is based on experience. All ideas that lead to this knowledge come from and are based on sense impressions. What and how we know that which we do know (and claim to know) are all traced back to sense impressions. This can be illustrated by examining our ideas of God, a being for whom we cannot have direct sense impressions, the most abstract and seemingly untraceable idea. We initially have sense impressions of ourselves as humans. Sense impressions of the weak, the strong, the smart, and dumb, all lead to our idea of God. Our impressions of God are essentially our sense impressions of humans without all the defects. This explains by example the notion that the idea is traced back to sense impressions. In this same way, Hume shows us how his idea of justice can also be traced back to sense impressions.
             Hume explains his theory of justice through the idea of public utility. He joins the two concepts by stating that only what is useful is just, that the sole origin of justice is utility. Utility is something from which we benefit. It is therefore always praiseworthy. If something is seen to be useful, we naturally embrace and receive it. In explicating the connection between justice and public utility, Hume presents to us two opposing scenarios of having. The first extreme is that of overabundance. In a society where there is too m...