Download or read book David Hume and the Problem of Other Minds written by Anik Waldow and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2011-10-20 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The problem of other minds has widely been considered as a special problem within the debate about scepticism. If one cannot be sure that there is a world existing independent ly of one's mind, how can we be sure that there are minds - minds which we cannot even experience the way we experience material objects? This book shows, through a detailed examination of David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature, that these concerns are unfounded. By focusing on Hume's discussion of sympathy - the ability to connect with the mental contents of other persons - Anik Waldow demonstrates that belief in other minds can be justified by the same means as belief in material objects. The book thus not only provides the first large-scale treatment of the function of the belief in other minds within the Treatise, thereby adding a new dimension to Hume's realism, but also serves as an invaluable guide to the complexity of the problem of other minds and its various responses in contemporary debate.
Download or read book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding written by David Hume and published by e-artnow. This book was released on 2019-04-04 with total page 121 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" is a book by David Hume created as a revision of an earlier work, Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature". The argument of the Enquiry proceeds by a series of incremental steps, separated into chapters which logically succeed one another. After expounding his epistemology, Hume explains how to apply his principles to specific topics. This book has proven highly influential, both in the years that would immediately follow and today. Immanuel Kant points to it as the book which woke him from his self-described "dogmatic slumber."
Download or read book An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals written by David Hume and published by . This book was released on 1751 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book David Hume s Theory of Mind written by Daniel E. Flage and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-04-24 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book, first published in 1990, is a detailed examination of David Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature. It shows that the theory of mind developed in the Trestise is a thread which ties together many of the seemingly unrelated philosophical issues discussed in the work. Hume’s primary objective was to defend a ‘bundle theory’ of mind, and, through a close examination of the texts, this book provides a thorough account of how Hume understood this theory and the problems he discovered with it.
Download or read book Mirrors to One Another written by E. M. Dadlez and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2009-03-30 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A compelling exploration of the convergence of Jane Austen’sliterary themes and characters with David Hume’s views onmorality and human nature. Argues that the normative perspectives endorsed in JaneAusten's novels are best characterized in terms of a Humeanapproach, and that the merits of Hume's account of ethical,aesthetic and epistemic virtue are vividly illustrated by Austen'swriting. Illustrates how Hume and Austen complement one another, eachproviding a lens that allows us to expand and elaborate on theideas of the other Proposes that literature may serve as a thought experiment,articulating hypothetical cases which allow the reader to test hermoral intuitions Contributes to ongoing debates on the philosophy of literature,ethics, and emotion
Download or read book God and the Reach of Reason written by Erik J. Wielenberg and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book puts C. S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell in dialogue with one another.
Download or read book Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion written by David Hume and published by . This book was released on 1779 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work written by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three fictional characters named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence. While all three agree that a god exists, they differ sharply in opinion on God's nature or attributes and how, or if, humankind can come to knowledge of a deity. In the Dialogues, Hume's characters debate a number of arguments for the existence of God, and arguments whose proponents believe through which we may come to know the nature of God. Such topics debated include the argument from design - for which Hume uses a house - and whether there is more suffering or good in the world (Argument from evil)
Download or read book Cognition and Commitment in Hume s Philosophy written by Don Garrett and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-11-28 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Hume s Problem written by Colin Howson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume offers a solution to one of the central, unsolved problems of Western philosophy, that of induction. It explores the implications of Hume's argument that successful prediction tells us nothing about the truth of the predicting theory.
Download or read book The Mind of David Hume written by Oliver A. Johnson and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Stability and Justification in Hume s Treatise written by Louis E. Loeb and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002-09-19 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book The External World and Our Knowledge of it written by Fred Wilson and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 825 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Hume is often considered to have been a sceptic, particularly in his conception of the individual's knowledge of the external world. However, a closer examination of his works gives a much different impression of this aspect of Hume's philosophy, one that is due for a thorough scholarly analysis. This study argues that Hume was, in fact, a critical realist in the early twentieth-century sense, a period in which the term was used to describe the epistemological and ontological theories of such philosophers as Roy Wood Sellars and Bertrand Russell. Carefully situating Hume in his historical context, that is, relative to Aristotelian and rationalist traditions, Fred Wilson makes important and unique insights into Humean philosophy. Analyzing key sections of the Treatise, the Enquiry, and the Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, Wilson offers a deeper understanding of Hume by taking into account the philosopher's theories of the external world. Such a reading, the author explains, is not only more faithful to the texts, but also reinforces the view of Hume as a critical realist in light of twentieth-century discussions between externalism and internalism, and between coherentists and foundationalists. Complete with original observations and ideas, this study is sure to generate debates about Humean philosophy, critical realism, and the limits of perceptual knowledge.
Download or read book Hume written by James A. Harris and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first intellectual biography of the British philosopher and historian David Hume.
Download or read book David Hume and Contemporary Philosophy written by Ilya Kasavin and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2013-07-16 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: David Hume bridges a gap between classical and non-classical philosophy. Two major approaches in 20th century systematic philosophy – naturalism and relativism – have both basically been inspired by Hume and create the most controversy nowadays. The dethroning of the knowing agent and the spiritual substance from their privileged place opens way to “the death of God” (F. Nietzsche) or “the death of the Author” (R. Barthes). Hume’s criticism of causality corresponds to the indeterminism of the quantum mechanics (B. Russell). K. Popper’s falsificationism would hardly be possible without Hume’s account of induction. L. Wittgenstein’s considerations on rule following reveal similarities with Hume’s idea of habit (S. Kripke) as well as with P. Bourdieu’s concept of “habitus”. D. Bloor likes “to think of Hume as Edinburgh’s great sociologist of knowledge”. The present collection is not a mere contribution to the history of philosophy, though it covers many problems of contemporary Humean scholarship and contains articles written by leading researchers in the field (B. Straud, R. Harre, J. Bricke, etc.). Its aim, rather, is to demonstrate the “vivacity” of Hume for contemporary philosophy. The authors’ considerations range from the subtlest questions of the development of his thought and its impact on the contemporary, to the most recent and controversial topics in epistemology, philosophy of science, political theory and ethics.
Download or read book Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion written by David Hume and published by Binker North. This book was released on 1779 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion is a philosophical work by the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Through dialogue, three philosophers named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence. Whether or not these names reference specific philosophers, ancient or otherwise, remains a topic of scholarly dispute. While all three agree that a god exists, they differ sharply in opinion on God's nature or attributes and how, or if, humankind can come to knowledge of a deity. In the Dialogues, Hume's characters debate a number of arguments for the existence of God, and arguments whose proponents believe through which we may come to know the nature of God. Such topics debated include the argument from design--for which Hume uses a house--and whether there is more suffering or good in the world (argument from evil). Hume started writing the Dialogues in 1750 but did not complete them until 1776, shortly before his death. They are based partly on Cicero's De Natura Deorum. The Dialogues were published posthumously in 1779, originally with neither the author's nor the publisher's name. Pamphilus is a youth present during the dialogues. In a letter, he reconstructs the conversation of Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes in detail for his friend Hermippus. He serves as the narrator throughout the piece. At the end of the Dialogues he believes that Cleanthes offered the strongest arguments. However, this could be out of loyalty to his teacher, as this does not seem to reflect Hume's own views on the topic. When other pieces on religion by Hume are taken into consideration, it may be noted that they all end with (apparently) ironic statements reaffirming the truth of Christian religious views. While the irony may be less readily evident in the Dialogues, this would suggest a similar reading of this work's ending.[2] Cicero used a similar technique in his Dialogues. Cleanthes is an "experimental theist"--"an exponent of orthodox empiricism"[3]--who bases his beliefs about God's existence and nature upon a version of the teleological argument, which uses evidence of design in the universe to argue for God's existence and resemblance to the human mind. Philo, according to the predominant view among scholars, is the character who presents views most similar to those of Hume.[4] Philo, along with Demea, attacks Cleanthes' views on anthropomorphism and teleology; while not going as far as to deny the existence of God, Philo asserts that human reason is wholly inadequate to make any assumptions about the divine, whether through a priori reasoning or observation of nature. Demea "defends the Cosmological argument and philosophical theism..." He believes that the existence of God should be proven through a priori reasoning and that our beliefs about the nature of God should be based upon revelation and fideism. Demea rejects Cleanthes' "natural religion" for being too anthropomorphic. Demea objects to the abandonment of the a priori arguments by Philo and Cleanthes (both of whom are empiricists) and perceives Philo to be "accepting an extreme form of skepticism.
Download or read book The Evident Connexion written by Galen Strawson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2011-05-05 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Evident Connexion presents a bold new reading of David Hume's famous 'bundle' theory of the self or mind, and his later rejection of it. Galen Strawson illuminates the 'uniting principle' of Hume's philosophy and argues that the bundle theory does not, as widely supposed, claim that there are no subjects of experience.
Download or read book An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding written by David Hume and published by Courier Corporation. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 116 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of philosophy's most widely read books and the best introduction to Hume's other works, this 1748 treatise offers an accessible account of the author's provocative notions about the limitations of the mind. Topics include the logical coexistence of free will and determinism and the deficiencies of religious doctrine.
