BOOK 3 (‘Of Morals’) PART 2 (Justice) Part 2 of Book 3 focuses on the artificial virtues, and justice in particular. Hume starts Part 2 by explaining why justice is an artificial virtue. Justice only exists due to the fact that humans live in communities and must therefore abide by social conventions. Hume starts the […]
Hume
0043: Hume’s Treatise… Book 3, Part 1 (Virtue and Vice)
BOOK 3 (‘Of Morals’) PART 1 (Virtue and Vice) The first section of Book 3 concerns itself with a highly contentious subject in philosophy, that of moral relativism. Does morality have an objective, a priori sense in which moral rules can be seen as eternal and unbreaking? Or is morality subjective, based more in individual sensations […]
0042: Hume’s Treatise… Book 2, Part 3 (Will and Direct Passions)
BOOK 2 (‘Of the Passions’) PART 3 (Will and Direct Passions) Having dealt with the indirect passions in Parts 1 and 2, Dave Hume now turns to the direct passions in Part 3. He starts by discussing another important concept in his philosophy, that of the ‘doctrine of necessity’. All human action whether moral or […]
0041: Hume’s Treatise… Book 2, Part 2 (Love and Hatred)
BOOK 2 (‘Of the Passions’) PART 2 (Love and Hatred) David Hume next focuses upon love and hatred. Similar to pride and humility, these are indirect passions formed by a double association of ideas and impressions. Unlike pride and humility, which are directed towards oneself, love and hatred are directed towards another person. Since love […]
0040: Hume’s Treatise… Book 2, Part 1 (Pride and Humility)
BOOK 2 (‘Of the Passions’) PART 1 (Pride and Humility) David Hume starts Book 2 of the Treatise of Human Nature by distinguishing between impressions of sensation (which arise from physical impressions outside of the mind, such as from sight, touch, etc) and impressions of reflection (which arise from impression formed within the mind, such as […]
0039: Hume’s Treatise… Book 1, Part 4 (Philosophical Systems)
BOOK 1 (‘Of the Understanding’) PART 4 (Philosophical Systems) Part 4 of the Treatise of Human Nature begins with David Hume again noting how unreliable our abilities to acquire knowledge are. Even mathematical proofs are not immune from scepticism, as one could easily have entered the wrong value into the formula (or used the wrong formula […]
0038: Hume’s Treatise… Book 1, Part 3 (Knowledge and Probability)
BOOK 1 (‘Of the Understanding’) PART 3 (Knowledge and Probability) David Hume starts Part 3 of the Treatise of Human Nature by re-iterating seven ways in which we formulate conclusions about the world. The first four relate to knowledge and certainty. Using intuition, we build up relationships between our impressions and therefore our ideas. In the […]
0037: Hume’s Treatise… Book 1, Parts 1 and 2 (Ideas, Space and Time)
INTRODUCTION In the introduction to Treatise of Human Nature, David Hume sets down the ‘ground rules’ for his philosophical investigation. His main priority is the study of human nature as a science. Driven by the empirical approach of such people as Isaac Newton, Hume proposes a new science of human psychology, based on observations of how people […]
0034: Hume’s Treatise… First Impressions
I’ve just completed one of the serious ‘big daddies’ of philosophical literature. David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature weighs in at almost 600 pages. But that’s just the start of the challenge. Just about every one of those 600 pages is filled with the sort of sophisticated argument that requires intense concentration on the part of the […]
0016: Hume on Tragedy… Is It Convincing?
Post 0012 considered the question of tragedy and why humans get such pleasure out of experiencing a harrowing story, whether it be depicted by a film, a book, or the stage. I used David Hume’s ‘On Tragedy’ essay as a starting point for the analysis. In this post, I will continue with the same theme, […]