| Phi 109-01 Fall 2013 |
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Hume was born less than a century after Spinoza, so in moving to him, we have not jumped as far in time as we have been. However, there are still important differences between the contexts in which the two philosophers wrote, partly due to differences between 17th and 18th centuries and partly due to differences between continental Europe and Britain. In particular, you will find Hume more interested in sense experience as a source of knowledge (and less interested in pure reasoning) than was Spinoza.
Hume’s major work was the Treatise on Human Nature, which he wrote in his late 20s. (Note that your assignment is the second of two selections from Hume in Pereboom; the other, which I have not assigned, is from Hume’s Treatise.) Later in his life, Hume recast ideas from his Treatise in two shorter and more popular works, both called “enquiries,” and the selection I’ve assigned is a section from the first of those. This section of Hume’s first Enquiry is divided into two unequal parts.
• The first part (pp. 87-99) suggests the implications for human freedom of Hume’s account of causation (an account that is the main topic of the whole of the Enquiry and the idea for which he is best known). You will find a summary of this account at the end of the paragraph appearing at the top of p. 89 (this is the 5th paragraph of the section).
• The second part (pp. 99-104) concerns the implications for morality of Hume’s view of freedom. (Hume’s view of morality itself is sketched in passing in the next-to-last paragraph of the section, on p. 103.) This second part itself has two components, a positive argument for the value of his view of freedom (pp. 99-102) and a reply to two objections (pp. 102-104).