Hume (original) (raw)

David Hume
(1711-1776)

Life and Works
. . Ideas
. . Belief
. . Cause & Effect
. . The Self
. . Skepticism
. . Morality
. . Religion
Bibliography
Internet Sources

Soon after completing his studies at Edinburgh, Scottish philosopher David Hume began writing his comprehensive statement of the views he believed would contribute to philosophy no less than Newton's had to science. But the public reception for the three books of his magisterialTreatise of Human Nature (1739) was less than cordial, and Hume abandoned his hopes of a philosophical career in order to support his family as a librarian, historian, diplomat, and political essayist, a course of action he described in the autobiographicalMy Own Life (1776). Hume's Essays Moral and Political (1741-1742) found some success, and the multi-volumeHistory of England (1754-1762) finally secured the modest livelihood for which he had hoped. Although he spent most of his life trying to produce more effective statements of his philosophical views, he did not live to see the firm establishment of his reputation by the criticisms ofKant and much later appreciation of thelogical positivists.

The central themes of Book I of the Treatise receive a somewhat more accessible treatment inAn Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748), a more popular summary of Hume'sempiricism.According to Hume, little human knowledge can be derived from the deductively certainrelations of ideas. Since the causal interactions of physical objects are known to us only as inherently uncertainmatters of fact, Hume argued, our belief that they exhibit anynecessary connection (however explicable) can never be rationally justified, but must be acknowledged to rest only upon our acquiredhabits. In similar fashion, Hume argued that we cannot justify our natural beliefs in the reality of theself or the existence of anexternal world.From all of this, he concluded that a severe (if mitigated)skepticism is the only defensible view of the world.

Hume recast the moral philosophy of the Treatise's Book III in An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). In both texts Hume clearly maintained that human agency and moral obligation are best considered asfunctions of human passions rather than as thedictates of reason. In the posthumously publishedDialogues concerning Natural Religion (1780), Hume discussed the possibility of arriving at certainknowledge of god through the application of reason and considered defense of afideistic alternative.

Recommended Reading:

Primary sources:

• David Hume, Philosophical Works, ed. by T. H. Green and T. H. Grose (Longmans, Green, 1874-1875)
• David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. by Ernest C. Mossner (Viking, 1986)
• David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, ed. by Anthony Flew (0812690540)
• David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (Free Press, 1966)
• David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, ed. by Martin Bell (Penguin, 1990)

Secondary sources:

• The Cambridge Companion to Hume, ed. by David Fate Norton (Cambridge, 1993)
• Feminist Interpretations of David Hume, ed. by Anne Jaap Jacobson (Penn. State, 2000)
• Jonathan Bennett, Locke, Berkeley, Hume: Central Themes (Oxford, 1971)
• The New Hume Debate, ed. by Rupert Read and Kenneth Richman (Routledge, 2000)
• Anthony Quinton, Hume (Routledge, 1999)
• Donald W. Livingston, Hume's Philosophy of Common Life (Chicago, 1984)
• Barry Stroud, Hume (Routledge, 1981)
• Terence Penelhum, David Hume: An Introduction to His Philosophical System (Purdue, 1992)
• George Dicker, Hume's Epistemology and Metaphysics: An Introduction (Routledge, 1998)
• H. O. Mounce, Hume's Naturalism (Routledge, 1999)
• Louis E. Loeb, Stability and Justification in Hume's Treatise (Oxford, 2002)
• Harold W. Noonan, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hume on Knowledge (Routledge, 1999)
• Hume's Moral and Political Philosophy, ed. by Henry David Aiken (Free Press, 1975)
• James Baillie, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hume on Morality (Routledge, 2000)
• Dabney Townsend, Hume's Aesthetic Theory: Sentiment and Taste in the History of Aesthetics (Routledge, 2001)
• David O'Connor, Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hume on Religion (Routledge, 2001)

Additional on-line information about Hume includes:

• articles in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy on:
  • Hume by William Edward Morris.
  • Kant and Hume on causality by Graciela De Pierris and Michael Friedman.
  • Hume on free will by Paul Russell.
  • Hume's moral philosophy by Rachel Cohon.
  • Hume's aesthetics by Ted Gracyk.
  • Hume on religion by Paul Russell.
• The full article available at Encyclopædia Brittanica Online.
• The thorough collection of resources at EpistemeLinks.com.
• An article in The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
• A section on Hume from Alfred Weber's history of philosophy.
• Marcia L. Homiak's discussion of Hume's Ethics.
• A paper on Hume's Construal of the Virtues by James Fieser.