Hume's 'A Treatise of Human Nature'

Hume's 'A Treatise of Human Nature'
Author: John P. Wright
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2009-11-26
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0521833760

Examines the development of Hume's ideas and their relation to eighteenth-century theories of the imagination and passions.

David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature

David Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature
Author: David Fate Norton
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 448
Release: 2007-04-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0191569089

David and Mary Norton present the definitive scholarly edition of one of the greatest philosophical works ever written. This first volume contains the critical text of David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature (1739/40), followed by the short Abstract (1740) in which Hume set out the key arguments of the larger work; the volume concludes with A Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend in Edinburgh (1745), Hume's defence of the Treatise when it was under attack from ministers seeking to prevent Hume's appointment as Professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh.

Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature

Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature
Author: Robert J. Fogelin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2019-04-25
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 042959030X

This work, first published in 1985, offers a general interpretation of Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature. Most Hume scholarship has either neglected or downplayed an important aspect of Hume’s position – his scepticism. This book puts that right, examining in close detail the sceptical arguments in Hume’s philosophy.

The Treatise on Human Nature

The Treatise on Human Nature
Author: St. Thomas Aquinas
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 460
Release: 2002-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780872206137

This series offers central philosophical treatises of Aquinas in new, state-of-the-art translations distinguished by their accuracy and use of clear and non-technical modern vocabulary. Annotation and commentary accessible to undergraduates make the series an ideal vehicle for the study of Aquinas by readers approaching him from a variety of backgrounds and interests.

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
Author: David Hume
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 170
Release: 1993-01-01
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780872202290

A landmark of enlightenment though, HUme's An Enquiry Concerning Human understanding is accompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: A Letter from a Gentlemen to His Friend in Edinburgh, hume's response to those accusing him of atheism, of advocating extreme scepticism, and of undermining the foundations of morality; and his Abstract of A Treatise of HUman Nature, which anticipates discussions developed in the Enquiry. In his concise Introduction, Eric Steinberg explores the conditions that led to write the Enquiry and the work's important relationship to Book 1 of Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature.

Stability and Justification in Hume's Treatise

Stability and Justification in Hume's Treatise
Author: Louis E. Loeb
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2002-09-19
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0198033508

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.