Imagination in Hume's Philosophy

Imagination in Hume's Philosophy
Author: Timothy M. Costelloe
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Total Pages: 329
Release: 2018-03-21
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1474436412

Defines the cutting-edge of scholarship on ancient Greek history employing methods from social science.

Humean Nature

Humean Nature
Author: Neil Sinhababu
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 314
Release: 2017-03-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191086479

Neil Sinhababu defends the Humean Theory of Motivation, according to which desire drives all human action and practical reasoning. Desire motivates us to pursue its object, makes thoughts of its object pleasant or unpleasant, focuses attention on its object, and is amplified by vivid representations of its object. These aspects of desire explain a vast range of psychological phenomena - why motivation often accompanies moral belief, how intentions shape our planning, how we exercise willpower, what it is to be a human self, how we express our emotions in action, why we procrastinate, and what we daydream about. Some philosophers regard such phenomena as troublesome for the Humean Theory, but the properties of desire help Humeans provide simpler and better explanations of these phenomena than their opponents can. The success of the Humean Theory in explaining a wide range of folk-psychological and experimental data, including those that its opponents cite in counterexamples, suggest that it is true. And the Humean Theory has revolutionary consequences for ethics, suggesting that moral judgments are beliefs about what feelings like guilt, admiration, and hope accurately represent in objective reality.

The Human Mind

The Human Mind
Author: Lord Robert Winston
Publisher: Random House
Total Pages: 524
Release: 2014-07-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1448168686

It is the most complex and mysterious object in the universe. Covered by a dull grey membrane, it resembles a gigantic, convoluted fungus. Its inscrutability has captivated scientists, philosophers and artists for centuries. It is, of course, the human brain. With the help of science we can now begin to understand the extraordinary complexity of the brain's circuits: we can see which nerve cells generate electricity as we fall in love, tell a lie or dream of a lottery win. And inside the 100 billion cells of this rubbery network is something remarkable: you. In this entertaining and accessible book, Robert Winston takes us deep into the workings of the human mind and shows how our emotions and personality are the result of genes and environment. He explains how memories are formed and lost, how the ever-changing brain is responsible for toddler tantrums and teenage angst, plus he reveals the truth behind extra-sensory perception, déjà vu and out-of-body experiences. He also tells us how to boost our intelligence, how to tap into creative powers we never knew we had, how to break old habits and keep our brain fit and active as we enter old age. The human mind is all we have to help us to understand it. Paradoxically, it is possible that science may never quite explain everything about this extraordinary mechanism that makes each of us unique.

The Humean Mind

The Humean Mind
Author: Angela Michelle Coventry
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre:
ISBN: 9780429429996

"David Hume (1711-1776) is widely acknowledged as one of the most important philosophers in the English language, with his work continuing to exert major influence on philosophy today. His empiricism, naturalism, and psychology of the mind and the passions shape many positions and approaches in the sciences and social sciences. The Humean Mind seeks to provide a comprehensive survey of his work, not only placing it in its historical context but also exploring its contemporary significance. Comprising thirty-eight chapters by a team of international contributors the Handbook is divided into four sections: · Intellectual context · Hume's thought · Hume's reception · Hume's legacy This handbook includes coverage of all major aspects of Hume's thought with essays spanning the full scope of Hume's philosophy. Topics explored include Hume's reception in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Hume's legacy in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; Hume's history, including an essay on Hume as historian, as well as essays on the relevance of history to Hume's philosophy and his politics, and an updated treatment of Hume's Legal Philosophy. Also included are essays on race, gender, and animal ethics. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy, Hume's work is central to epistemology, metaphysics, philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, ethics, legal philosophy and philosophy of religion"--

Kluge

Kluge
Author: Gary Marcus
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 228
Release: 2009-04
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9780547238241

A New York University psychologist argues that the mind is a "kluge"-a clumsy, cobbled-together contraption-as he ponders the accidents of evolution that caused this structure and what we can do about it.

Toward a Humean True Religion

Toward a Humean True Religion
Author: Andre C. Willis
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2015-06-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0271065788

David Hume is traditionally seen as a devastating critic of religion. He is widely read as an infidel, a critic of the Christian faith, and an attacker of popular forms of worship. His reputation as irreligious is well forged among his readers, and his argument against miracles sits at the heart of the narrative overview of his work that perennially indoctrinates thousands of first-year philosophy students. In Toward a Humean True Religion, Andre Willis succeeds in complicating Hume’s split approach to religion, showing that Hume was not, in fact, dogmatically against religion in all times and places. Hume occupied a “watershed moment,” Willis contends, when old ideas of religion were being replaced by the modern idea of religion as a set of epistemically true but speculative claims. Thus, Willis repositions the relative weight of Hume’s antireligious sentiment, giving significance to the role of both historical and discursive forces instead of simply relying on Hume’s personal animus as its driving force. Willis muses about what a Humean “true religion” might look like and suggests that we think of this as a third way between the classical and modern notions of religion. He argues that the cumulative achievements of Hume’s mild philosophic theism, the aim of his moral rationalism, and the conclusion of his project on the passions provide the best content for this “true religion.”

David Hume's Theory of Mind

David Hume's Theory of Mind
Author: Daniel E. Flage
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 310
Release: 2019-04-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0429640048

This book, first published in 1990, is a detailed examination of David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature. It shows that the theory of mind developed in the Trestise is a thread which ties together many of the seemingly unrelated philosophical issues discussed in the work. Hume’s primary objective was to defend a ‘bundle theory’ of mind, and, through a close examination of the texts, this book provides a thorough account of how Hume understood this theory and the problems he discovered with it.

Hume's Theory of Causation

Hume's Theory of Causation
Author: Angela M. Coventry
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2006-06-08
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1847142222

Causation has always been a central topic in the history of philosophy. Many theories causation have been advanced, but not one has approached anything like general acceptance. Yet the concept of causation is prevalent in many areas of contemporary philosophy: there are the causal theories of language, of action, of personal identity, of knowledge, of perception, of scientific explanation, and of reference. If causation is doing all this philosophical work, it seems essential to strive for an intelligible account of what a 'cause' actually is. One obvious place to start is Hume's analysis of causation, which is generally thought to be the most significant and influential single contribution to the topic. But despite the widely recognized importance of his analysis, many opposing interpretations surround his causal theory. There are some commentators who believe that his theory is a version of realism and many others who argue that it is a version of anti-realism. There is considerable textual evidence for, and also against, each interpretation. Angela Coventry develops a more conciliatory approach. She argues that Hume's causal theory is best understood as 'quasi-realist' - an intermediate position between realism and anti-realism. This makes sense of some seemingly contradictory passages in Hume's work and also provides an answer to a major objection which is commonly thought to devastate his causal theory. Coventry then goes on to outline a general, topic-independent, conception of quasi-realism as distinct from realistm and anti-realism that allows it to stand as a consistent third alternative.

Hume

Hume
Author: Don Garrett
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2014-11-13
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1136309357

Beginning with an overview of Hume's life and work, Don Garrett introduces in clear and accessible style the central aspects of Hume's thought. These include Hume's lifelong exploration of the human mind; his theories of inductive inference and causation; skepticism and personal identity; moral and political philosophy; aesthetics; and philosophy of religion. The final chapter considers the influence and legacy of Hume's thought today. Throughout, Garrett draws on and explains many of Hume's central works, including his Treatise of Human Nature, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding, and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Hume is essential reading not only for students of philosophy, but anyone in the humanities and social sciences and beyond seeking an introduction to Hume's thought.