David Hume

David Hume
Author: Terence Penelhum
Publisher: Purdue University Press
Total Pages: 240
Release: 1992
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9781557530134

This volume provides a general account of the philosophy of David Hume in a way that shows that he is, contrary to common belief, a highly systematic thinker whose thought and personality are closely related. it is also designed to assist the reader to make the most informed use of the rich resources of contemporary Hume scholarship.

David Hume

David Hume
Author: Nicholas T. Phillipson
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 195
Release: 2014-05-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300184867

A giant of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, David Hume was one of the most important philosophers ever to write in English. He was also a brilliant historian. In this book--a new and revised edition of his 1989 classic--Nicholas Phillipson shows how Hume freed history from religion and politics. As a philosopher, Hume sought a way of seeing the world and pursuing happiness independently of a belief in God. His groundbreaking approach applied the same outlook to Britain's history, showing how the past was shaped solely through human choices and actions. In this analysis of Hume's life and works, from his university days in Edinburgh to the rapturous reception of his "History of England," Nicholas Phillipson reveals the gradual process by which one of the greatest Western philosophers turned himself into one of the greatest historians of Britain. In doing so, he shows us how revolutionary Hume was, and why his ideas still matter today.

David Hume’s Humanity

David Hume’s Humanity
Author: S. Yenor
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 253
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1137539593

Scott Yenor argues that David Hume's reputation as a skeptic is greatly exaggerated and that Hume's skepticism is a moment leading Hume to defend common life philosophy and the humane commercial republic. Gentle, humane virtues reflect the proper reaction to the complex mixture of human faculties that define the human condition.

The Essential David Hume

The Essential David Hume
Author: David Hume
Publisher: Signet Book
Total Pages: 392
Release: 1969
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

David Hume (1711-76) is the most important philosopher ever to have written in English. Although best known for his contributions to epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of religion, Hume also made substantial and influential contributions to psychology and the philosophy of mind, ethics, the philosophy of science, political and economic theory, political and social history, and, to a lesser extent, aesthetic and literary theory. Of all of Hume's writings, the philosophically most profound is undoubtedly his first, "A Treatise on Human Nature." "Hume on Morality" introduces and assesses: Hume's life and the background of the "Treatise"; the ideas and text in the "Treatise"; and Hume's continuing importance to philosophy.

David Hume

David Hume
Author: Mark G. Spencer
Publisher: Penn State Press
Total Pages: 466
Release: 2015-06-26
Genre: History
ISBN: 0271068418

This volume provides a new and nuanced appreciation of David Hume as a historian. Gone for good are the days when one can offhandedly assert, as R. G. Collingwood once did, that Hume “deserted philosophical studies in favour of historical” ones. History and philosophy are commensurate in Hume’s thought and works from the beginning to the end. Only by recognizing this can we begin to make sense of Hume’s canon as a whole and see clearly his many contributions to fields we now recognize as the distinct disciplines of history, philosophy, political science, economics, literature, religious studies, and much else besides. Casting their individual beams of light on various nooks and crannies of Hume’s historical thought and writing, the book’s contributors illuminate the whole in a way that would not be possible from the perspective of a single-authored study. Aside from the editor, the contributors are David Allan, M. A. Box, Timothy M. Costelloe, Roger L. Emerson, Jennifer Herdt, Philip Hicks, Douglas Long, Claudia M. Schmidt, Michael Silverthorne, Jeffrey M. Suderman, Mark R. M. Towsey, and F. L. van Holthoon.

David Hume and Contemporary Philosophy

David Hume and Contemporary Philosophy
Author: Ilya Kasavin
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 335
Release: 2013-07-16
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1443850047

David Hume bridges a gap between classical and non-classical philosophy. Two major approaches in 20th century systematic philosophy – naturalism and relativism – have both basically been inspired by Hume and create the most controversy nowadays. The dethroning of the knowing agent and the spiritual substance from their privileged place opens way to “the death of God” (F. Nietzsche) or “the death of the Author” (R. Barthes). Hume’s criticism of causality corresponds to the indeterminism of the quantum mechanics (B. Russell). K. Popper’s falsificationism would hardly be possible without Hume’s account of induction. L. Wittgenstein’s considerations on rule following reveal similarities with Hume’s idea of habit (S. Kripke) as well as with P. Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus”. D. Bloor likes “to think of Hume as Edinburgh’s great sociologist of knowledge”. The present collection is not a mere contribution to the history of philosophy, though it covers many problems of contemporary Humean scholarship and contains articles written by leading researchers in the field (B. Straud, R. Harre, J. Bricke, etc.). Its aim, rather, is to demonstrate the “vivacity” of Hume for contemporary philosophy. The authors’ considerations range from the subtlest questions of the development of his thought and its impact on the contemporary, to the most recent and controversial topics in epistemology, philosophy of science, political theory and ethics.

Aesthetics and Morals in the Philosophy of David Hume

Aesthetics and Morals in the Philosophy of David Hume
Author: Timothy M Costelloe
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 162
Release: 2013-01-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1135197873

The book has two aims. First, to examine the extent and significance of the connection between Hume's aesthetics and his moral philosophy; and, second, to consider how, in light of the connection, his moral philosophy answers central questions in ethics. The first aim is realized in chapters 1-4. Chapter 1 examines Hume's essay "Of the Standard of Taste" to understand his search for a "standard" and how this affects the scope of his aesthetics. Chapter 2 establishes that he treats beauty in nature and art and moral beauty as similar in kind, and applies the conclusions about his aesthetics to his moral thought. Chapter 3 solves a puzzle to which this gives rise, namely, how individuals both accept general standards that they also contravene in the course of aesthetic and moral activity. Chapter 4 takes up the normative aspect of Hume's approach by understanding moral character through his view of moral beauty. The second aim of the book is realized in chapters 5-7 by entertaining three objections against Hume's moral philosophy. First, if morality is an immediate reaction to the beauty of vice and the deformity of virtue, why is perfect virtue not the general condition of every human individual? Second, if morality consists of sentiments that arise in the subject, how can moral judgments be objective and claim universal validity? And third, if one can talk of "general standards" governing conduct, how does one account for the diversity of moral systems and their change over time? The first is answered by showing that like good taste in aesthetics, 'right taste' in morals requires that the sentiments are educated; the second, by arguing against the view that Hume is a subjectivist and a relativist, and the third (chapter 6), by showing that his approach contains a view of progress left untouched by any personal prejudices Hume himself might harbor. The book concludes in chapter 7 by showing how Hume's view of philosophy affects the scope of any normative ethics.