Read complete books and articles on: David Hume

Hume, David - hyoom, 1711–76, Scottish philosopher and historian. Educated at Edinburgh, he lived (1734–37) in France, where he finished his first philosophical work, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40). His other philosophical works include An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748; a simplified version of the first book of the Treatise), An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), Political Discourses (1752), The Natural History of Religion (1755), and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). Hume also wrote an exhaustive History of England (1754–62), whose purity of style overcame the frequent faultiness of fact and made the work the standard history of England for many years. In 1763, Hume returned to Paris as secretary to the British embassy. It was at that time that he became a friend of Jean Jacques Rousseau, to whom he later gave refuge in England. In philosophy Hume pressed the analysis of John Locke and George Berkeley to the logical extreme of skepticism for which he is famous. He could see no more reason for hypothesizing a substantial soul or mind than for accepting a substantial material world. A complete nominalist in his handling of ideas of material objects, he carried the method into the discussion of mind and found nothing there but a bundle of perceptions. Causal relation derives solely from the customary conjunction of two impressions; the apparent sequence of events in the external world is in fact the sequence of perceptions in the mind. From this statement Hume argued that our expectation that the future will be like the past (e.g., that the sun will rise tomorrow morning) has no basis in reason; it is purely a matter of belief. However, he also asserted that such theoretical skepticism is irrelevant to the practical concerns of daily life. Hume's attack on rationalism is also evident in his two works on religion; in these he rejects any rational or natural theology.

See his autobiography (1777); studies by N. K. Smith (1941), J. B. Stewart (1963, repr. 1973), J. Passmore (1968), and J. Noxon (1973).

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: David Hume

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1.

The Great Infidel: A Life of David Hume » Read Now
by Roderick Graham. 430 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library
2.

Understanding Hume » Read Now
by John J. Jenkins, Peter Lewis, Geoffrey Madell. 216 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

...references. ISBN 0-389-20986-4 1. Hume, David, 1711-1776. I. Jenkins, John J...T. Greig ed. , The Letters of David Hume Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1969...E. C. Mossner, The...
3.

David Hume: Selected Essays » Read Now
by David Hume, Stephen Copley, Andrew Edgar. 420 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

In his writings, David Hume set out to bridge the gap between the learned world of the academy and the marketplace of polite society. This collection, drawing largely on his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary (1776 edition), which was even more popular than his famous Treatise of Human Nature...
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In his writings, David Hume set out to bridge the gap between the learned world of the academy and the marketplace of polite society. This collection, drawing largely on his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary (1776 edition), which was even more popular than his famous Treatise of Human Nature, comprehensively shows how far he succeeded. From `Of Essay Writing' to `Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences' Hume embraces a staggering range of social, cultural, political, demographic, and historical concerns. With the scope typical of the Scottish Enlightenment, he charts the state of civil society, manners, morals, and taste, and the development of political economy in the mid-eighteenth century. These essays represent not only those areas where Hume's arguments are revealingly typical of his day, but also where he is strikingly innovative in a period already famous for its great thinkers.
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4.

A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects; And, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, Vol. I » Read Now
by David Hume, T. H. Green, T. H. Grose. 565 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
5.

A Treatise on Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects and, Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, Vol. II » Read Now
by David Hume, T. H. Gree, T. H. Grose. 502 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library
6.

Stability and Justification in Hume's Treatise » Read Now
by Louis E. Loeb. 280 pgs.

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David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature is famous for its extreme skepticism. Louis Loeb argues that Hume's destructive conclusions have in fact obscured a constructive stage that Hume abandons prematurely. Working within a philosophical tradition that values tranquillity, Hume favors an...
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David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature is famous for its extreme skepticism. Louis Loeb argues that Hume's destructive conclusions have in fact obscured a constructive stage that Hume abandons prematurely. Working within a philosophical tradition that values tranquillity, Hume favors an epistemology that links justification with settled belief. Hume appeals to psychological stability to support his own epistemological assessments, both favorable regarding causal inference, and unfavorable regarding imaginative propensities. The theory's success in explaining Hume's epistemic distinctions gives way to pessimism, since Hume contends that reflection on beliefs is deeply destabilizing. So much the worse, Hume concludes, for placing a premium on reflection. Hume endorses and defends the position that stable beliefs of unreflective persons are justified, though they would not survive reflection. At the same time, Hume relishes the paradox that unreflective beliefs enjoy a preferred epistemic status and strains to establish it. Loeb introduces a series of amendments to the Treatise that secures a more positive result for justified belief while maintaining Hume's fundamental principles. In his review of Hume's applications of his epistemology, Loeb uncovers a stratum of psychological doctrine beyond associationism, a theory of conditions in which beliefs are felt to conflict and of the resolution of this uneasiness or dissonance. This theory of mental conflict is also essential to Hume's strategy for integrating empiricism about meaning with his naturalism. However, Hume fails to provide a general account of the conditions in which conflicting beliefs lead to persisting instability, so his theory is incomplete. Loeb explores Hume's concern with stability in reference to his discussions of belief, education, the probability of causes, unphilosophical probability, the belief in body, sympathy and moral judgment, and the passions, among other topics.
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7.

Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hume on Knowledge » Read Now
by Harold W. Noonan. 221 pgs.

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David Hume was one of the most important British philosophers of the eighteenth century. The first part of his Treatise on Human Nature is a seminal work in philosophy. Hume on Knowledge introduces and assesses:* Humes life and the background of the Treatise * The ideas and text in the...
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David Hume was one of the most important British philosophers of the eighteenth century. The first part of his Treatise on Human Nature is a seminal work in philosophy. Hume on Knowledge introduces and assesses:* Humes life and the background of the Treatise * The ideas and text in the Treatise * Humes continuing importance to philosophy
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8.

Hume's Place in Moral Philosophy » Read Now
by Nicholas Capaldi. 396 pgs.

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9.

David Hume's Critique of Infinity » Read Now
by Dale Jacquette. 390 pgs.

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10.

Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy » Read Now
by Don Garrett. 276 pgs.

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It is widely believed that Hume often wrote carelessly and contradicted himself, and that no unified, sound philosophy emerges from his writings. Don Garrett demonstrates that such criticisms of Hume are without basis. Offering fresh and trenchant solutions to longstanding problems in Hume studies...
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It is widely believed that Hume often wrote carelessly and contradicted himself, and that no unified, sound philosophy emerges from his writings. Don Garrett demonstrates that such criticisms of Hume are without basis. Offering fresh and trenchant solutions to longstanding problems in Hume studies, Garrett's penetrating analysis also makes clear the continuing relevance of Hume's philosophy.
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11.

Hume's Abject Failure: The Argument against Miracles » Read Now
by John Earman. 220 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Philosophy, Entire Library

This vital study offers a new interpretation of Hume's famous "Of Miracles," which notoriously argues against the possibility of miracles. By situating Hume's popular argument in the context of the 18th century debate on miracles, Earman shows Hume's argument to be largely unoriginal and chiefly...
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This vital study offers a new interpretation of Hume's famous "Of Miracles," which notoriously argues against the possibility of miracles. By situating Hume's popular argument in the context of the 18th century debate on miracles, Earman shows Hume's argument to be largely unoriginal and chiefly without merit where it is original. Yet Earman constructively conceives how progress can be made on the issues that Hume's essay so provocatively posed about the ability of eyewitness testimony to establish the credibility of marvelous and miraculous events.
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12.

Theorists of Economic Growth from David Hume to the Present: With a Perspective on the Next Century » Read Now
by W. W. Rostow, Michael Kennedy. 712 pgs.

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This history of theories and theorists of economic growth elucidates the economic theory, economic history, and public policy observations of the renowned scholar W. W. Rostow. Looking at the economic growth theories of the classic economists up to 1870, Rostow compares Hume and Adam Smith, Malthus...
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This history of theories and theorists of economic growth elucidates the economic theory, economic history, and public policy observations of the renowned scholar W. W. Rostow. Looking at the economic growth theories of the classic economists up to 1870, Rostow compares Hume and Adam Smith, Malthus and Ricardo, and J.S. Mill and Karl Marx. He then examines the period 1870-1939 and its economic theorists, including Schumpeter, Colin Clark, Kuznets, and Harrod, and surveys the three forms of growth analysis in the postwar era: formal models, statistical morphology, and development theories. This authoritative overview also includes an agenda of unresolved problems in growth analysis and a description of the five major tasks statesmen will confront over the next several generations.
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13.

Society and Sentiment: Genres of Historical Writing in Britain, 1740-1820 (Chap. One "David Hume and the Vocabularies of British Historiography" and Chap. Two "Hume and the Politics and Poetics of Historical Distance") » Read Now
by Mark Salber Phillips. 369 pgs.

Collections: History, Entire Library

"An outstanding book that should attract all readers concerned with eighteenth-century intellectual life and literature. Society and Sentiment's great achievement as a whole is to bring together the period's interest in interiority--evinced, for example, in epistolary and journal fiction, in forms...
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"An outstanding book that should attract all readers concerned with eighteenth-century intellectual life and literature. Society and Sentiment's great achievement as a whole is to bring together the period's interest in interiority--evinced, for example, in epistolary and journal fiction, in forms of generic tension and what the author calls 'reframing'--with the wide perspectives of the eighteenth-century 'philosophic' history of manners. In doing so, Phillips's book not only explores past generic instabilities in new ways but also fruitfully transgresses those we ourselves habitually bring to bear on intellectual and cultural history.... The author's nuanced, very lucid, and elegant prose is an essential instrument of the methodological as well as historiographical reappraisal his book offers."--J. W. Burrow, Balliol College, University of Oxford
""Society and Sentiment" is excellent and a pleasure to read; I cannot say how long it has been since I have read a book from which I have learned so much. It is likely to be the standard work for a long time on the history of history writing in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Demonstrating considerable knowledge about a great variety of texts, and a superior grasp of the principles and theories of history writing during this period, Mark Phillips offers an account both of the many ways history was then written and an analysis of why those directions took place."--J. Paul Hunter, The University of Chicago
""Society and Sentiment" is a demanding, complex, nuanced, and erudite study employing a number of texts that should appeal to scholars of both history and literature . ."--Richard A. Voeltz
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14.

Toward a Naturalistic Political Theory: Aristotle, Hume, Dewey, Evolutionary Biology, and Deep Ecology (Chap. 2 "Hume: Natural Sentiments") » Read Now
by Terry Hoy. 148 pgs.

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Hoy seeks to establish a basis for a naturalistic political theory as a continuity from Aristotle through the Enlightenment and Post-Enlightenment contributions of HUme and Dewey along with more recent development in Evolutionary Biology and Deep Ecology. He argues that this continuity can be seen...
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Hoy seeks to establish a basis for a naturalistic political theory as a continuity from Aristotle through the Enlightenment and Post-Enlightenment contributions of HUme and Dewey along with more recent development in Evolutionary Biology and Deep Ecology. He argues that this continuity can be seen as a corrective to inadequacies in both the reductive naturalism of classical liberalism as well as radical historicism or cultural relativism.
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15.

The Passion for Happiness: Samuel Johnson and David Hume » Read Now
by Adam Potkay. 241 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library

Although widely perceived as inhabiting different, even opposed, literary worlds, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and David Hume (1711-1776) shared common ground as moralists. Adam Potkay traces their central concerns to Hellenistic philosophy, as conveyed by Cicero, and to earlier moderns such as...
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Although widely perceived as inhabiting different, even opposed, literary worlds, Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) and David Hume (1711-1776) shared common ground as moralists. Adam Potkay traces their central concerns to Hellenistic philosophy, as conveyed by Cicero, and to earlier moderns such as Addison and Mandeville.
Johnson's and Hume's large and diverse bodies of writings, Potkay says, are unified by several key questions: What is happiness? What is the role of virtue in the happy life? What is the proper relationship between passion and reflection in the happy or flourishing individual?
In their writings, Johnson and Hume largely agree upon what flourishing means for both human beings and the communities they inhabit. They also tell a common story about the history that led up to the enlightened age of eighteenth-century Europe. On the divisive topic of religion, these two great men of letters wrote with a decorum that characterizes the Enlightenment in Britain as compared to its French counterpart. In The Passion for Happiness, Adam Potkay illuminates much that philosophers and historians do not ordinarily appreciate about Hume, and that literary scholars might not recognize about Johnson.
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16.

Three Deaths and Enlightenment Thought: Hume, Johnson, Marat » Read Now
by Stephen Miller. 219 pgs.

Collections: Philosophy, Entire Library