The Art of Blame: Hume on Insult and Satire

Abstract: Book 1 of Hume’s Treatise offers a digression on insult and satire that can be expanded when considered in tandem with his account of conflicting emotions in “Of Tragedy.” The passage in the Treatise suggests that insult and satire can convey precisely the same disapproval yet arouse quite different reactions from their objects. How can this be? If satire is compared to tragedy, we can see that both give rise to negative reactions that are often mitigated by the manner in which the material is presented.