Web14/05/ · In this essay Hume distinguishes between (1) delicacy of passion, which makes people sensitive to life’s joys and sorrows, and (2) delicacy of taste, which makes WebDavid Hume (/ h juː m /; born David Home; 7 May NS (26 April OS) – 25 August ) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian and WebThe twenty-seven most important essays are presented in this fully annotated edition, together with excerpts from the History of England which illuminate their context. This
Hume’s Essays | Online Library of Liberty
Virtually all subsequent Western philosophyespecially AyerBlackburnBorges[9] ChomskyDeleuzeDennettEinsteinFodorGibbonHamannHamiltonHusserlJeffersonJamesKantMackieMadisonMillPaineSobelPopperRousseauReidRussellSchopenhauerVoltaireSmithMarxKeynes. Hume argued against the existence of innate ideaspositing that all human knowledge derives solely from experience. This places him with Francis BaconThomas Hobbesand John Locke as an Empiricist. Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified rationally; instead, they result from custom and mental habit. We never actually perceive that one event causes another but only experience the " constant conjunction " of events.
This problem of induction means that to draw any causal inferences from past experience, it is necessary to presuppose that the future will resemble the past, a presupposition which cannot itself be grounded in prior experience. An opponent of philosophical rationalistsHume held that passions rather than reason govern human behaviour, david hume essays, famously proclaiming that " Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions. He maintained david hume essays early commitment to naturalistic explanations of moral phenomena and is usually taken to have first clearly expounded the is—ought problemor the idea that a statement of fact alone can never give rise to a normative conclusion of what ought to be done.
Hume also denied that humans have an david hume essays conception of the self, positing that we experience only a bundle of sensationsdavid hume essays, david hume essays that the self is nothing more than this bundle of causally-connected perceptions. Hume's compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom. Hume influenced utilitarianismlogical positivismthe philosophy of scienceearly analytic philosophycognitive sciencetheologyand many other fields and thinkers. Immanuel Kant credited Hume as the inspiration who had awakened him from his "dogmatic slumbers. Hume was born on 26 April Old Styleas David Homein a tenement on the north side of Edinburgh 's Lawnmarket.
He was the second of two sons born to Catherine Home née Falconerdaughter of Sir David Falconer of Newton and wife Mary Falconer née Norvell[17] and Joseph Home of David hume essays in the County of Berwickan advocate of Ninewells. Joseph died just after David's second birthday. Catherine, who never remarried, raised the two brothers and their sister on her own. Hume changed his family name's spelling indavid hume essays, as the surname 'Home' pronounced as 'Hume' was not well-known in England. Hume never married and lived partly at his Chirnside family home in Berwickshirewhich had belonged to the family since the 16th century.
His finances as a young man were very "slender", david hume essays, as his family was david hume essays rich and, as a younger son, he had little patrimony to live on. Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at an unusually early age—either 12 or possibly as young as 10—at david hume essays time when 14 was the typical age. Initially, Hume considered a career in lawbecause of his family. However, in his words, he came to have: [19], david hume essays. He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in that "there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books", david hume essays. Aged 18 or so, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened up to him "a new Scene of Thought", inspiring him "to throw up every other Pleasure or Business to apply entirely to it".
From this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of 10 years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a mental breakdownfirst starting with a coldness—which he attributed to a "Laziness of Temper"—that lasted about nine months. Later, some scurvy spots broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose Hume as suffering from the "Disease of the Learned". Hume wrote that he "went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills", taken along with a pint of claret every day. He also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning. After eating well for a time, david hume essays, he went from being "tall, lean and raw-bon'd" to being "sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like. Although having noble ancestry, at 25 years of age, Hume had no source of income and no learned profession.
As was common at his time, he became a merchant 's assistant, despite having to leave his native Scotland. He travelled via Bristol to La Flèche in AnjouFrance, david hume essays. There he had frequent discourse with the Jesuits of the College of La Flèche. Hume was derailed in his attempts to start a university career by protests over his alleged " atheism ", david hume essays, [30] [31] also lamenting that his literary debut, A Treatise of Human Nature"fell dead-born from the press. His tenure there, david hume essays, and the access to research materials it provided, resulted in Hume's writing the massive six-volume The History of Englandwhich became a bestseller and the standard history of England in its day.
For over 60 years, Hume was the dominant interpreter of English history. Though he was only 23 years old when starting this work, it is now regarded as one of the most important in the history of Western philosophy. Hume worked for four years on his first major work, A Treatise of Human David hume essayssubtitled "Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental David hume essays of Reasoning into Moral Subjects", completing it david hume essays at the age of Although many scholars today consider the Treatise to be Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in Western philosophy, critics in Great Britain at the time described it as "abstract and unintelligible".
Despite the disappointment, Hume later wrote: "Being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I soon recovered from the blow and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country. After the publication of Essays Moral and Political in —included in the later edition as Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary —Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. However, the position was given to William Cleghorn [39] after Edinburgh ministers petitioned the town council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an atheist.
Induring the Jacobite risingsHume tutored the Marquess of Annandale —92an engagement that ended in disarray after about a year. During this time he was also involved with the Canongate Theatre through his friend John Homea preacher. In this context, he associated with Lord Monboddo and other thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh. FromHume served for three years as secretary to General James St Clairwho was envoy to the courts of Turin and Vienna. At that time Hume also wrote Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understandinglater published as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Often called the First Enquiryit proved little more successful than the Treatiseperhaps because of david hume essays publication of his short david hume essays My Own Lifewhich "made friends difficult for the first Enquiry", david hume essays.
In he went to live with his brother in the countryside, although he continued to associate with the aforementioned Scottish Enlightenment figures. David hume essays religious views were often suspect and, in the s, it was necessary for his friends to avert a trial against him on the charge of heresyspecifically in an ecclesiastical court. However, he "would not have come and could not be forced to attend if he said he was not a member of the Established Church". By this time, he had published the Philosophical Essayswhich were decidedly anti-religious. Even Adam Smithhis personal friend who had vacated the Glasgow philosophy chair, was against his appointment out of concern that public opinion would be against it.
Hume returned to Edinburgh in In the following year, the Faculty of Advocates hired him to be their Librarian, a job in which he would receive little to no pay, david hume essays, but which nonetheless gave him "the command of a large library". Eventually, with the publication of his six-volume The History of England between andHume achieved the fame that he coveted. Hume was also a longtime friend of bookseller Andrew Millarwho sold Hume's History after acquiring the rights from Scottish bookseller Gavin Hamilton [49]although the relationship was sometimes complicated.
Letters between them illuminate both men's interest in the success of the History. In Hume moved from Jack's Land on the Canongate to James Court on the Lawnmarket. He sold the house to James Boswell in From toHume was invited to attend Lord Hertford in Pariswhere he became secretary to the British embassy. InHume served as British Chargé d'affaireswriting "despatches to david hume essays British Secretary of State ". According david hume essays Dr. Felix Waldmann, a david hume essays Hume Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Hume's "puckish scepticism about the existence of religious miracles played a significant part in defining the critical outlook which underpins the practice of modern science.
But his views served to reinforce the institution of racialised slavery in the later 18th century. InHume left Paris to accompany Jean-Jacques Rousseau to England. Once there, he and Rousseau fell out[57] leaving Hume sufficiently worried about the damage to his reputation from the quarrel with Rousseau. So much so, david hume essays, that Hume would author an account of david hume essays dispute, titling it "A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau ". InHume was appointed Under Secretary of State david hume essays the Northern Department.
Here, david hume essays, he wrote that he was given "all the secrets of the Kingdom". In he returned to James' Court in Edinburgh, where he would live from until his death in Hume's nephew and namesake, David Hume of Ninewells —was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in He was a Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University and rose to be Principal Clerk of Session in the Scottish High Court and Baron of the David hume essays. He is buried with his uncle in Old Calton Cemetery. In the last year of his life, Hume wrote an extremely brief autobiographical essay titled "My Own Life", [17] summing up his entire life in "fewer than 5 pages"; [60] it contains many interesting judgments that have been of enduring interest to subsequent readers of Hume.
Anyone hankering for startling revelations or amusing anecdotes had better look elsewhere. Despite condemning vanity as a dangerous passion, [63] in his autobiography Hume confesses his belief that the "love of literary fame" had served as his "ruling passion" in life, and claims that this desire "never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments". One such disappointment Hume discusses in this account is in the initial literary reception of the Treatisewhich he claims to have overcome by means of the success of the Essays : "the work was favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disappointment".
Hume, in his own retrospective judgment, argues that his philosophical debut's apparent failure "had proceeded more from the manner than the matter". He thus suggests that "I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early. Hume also provides an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works: that "my Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion who ought not to judge on that subject is of all my writings, david hume essays, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best. He goes on to profess of his character: "My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct.
I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained. Diarist and biographer James Boswell saw Hume a few weeks before his death from a form of abdominal cancer. Hume told him that he sincerely believed it a "most unreasonable fancy" that there might be life after death. David Hume died at the southwest corner of St. Andrew's Square in Edinburgh's New Townat what is now 21 Saint David Street. His tomb stands, as he wished it, on the southwestern slope of Calton Hillin the Old Calton Cemetery. Adam Smith later recounted Hume's amusing speculation that he might ask CharonHades ' ferryman, to allow him a few more years of life in order to see "the downfall of some of the prevailing systems of superstition".
The ferryman replied, "You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many hundred years. A Treatise of Human Nature begins with the introduction: "'Tis evident, that all the sciences have a relation, more or less, to human nature. Until recently, Hume was seen as a forerunner of logical positivisma form of anti- metaphysical empiricism. According to the logical positivists in summary of their verification principleunless a statement could be verified by experience, or else was true or false by definition i. either tautological or contradictorythen it was meaningless. Hume, on this view, was a proto-positivist, who, in his philosophical writings, attempted to demonstrate the ways in which ordinary propositions about objects, causal relations, the self, david hume essays, and so on, are semantically equivalent to propositions about one's experiences.
Many commentators have since rejected this understanding of Humean empiricism, stressing an epistemological rather than a semantic reading of his project.
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Web14/05/ · In this essay Hume distinguishes between (1) delicacy of passion, which makes people sensitive to life’s joys and sorrows, and (2) delicacy of taste, which makes WebPhilosophy of David Hume Essays The two general problems posed by Hume is how do we, as human beings, form opinions about certain issues that we may or may have not WebDavid Hume (/ h juː m /; born David Home; 7 May NS (26 April OS) – 25 August ) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian and
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