David Hume

1711-1776 · Scottish · Epistemology, Metaphysics, Ethics, Political Economy, Philosophy of Religion

Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.

When David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature appeared in 1739, he was twenty-seven and certain he had built a science of human nature as rigorous as Newton's physics. The book "fell dead-born from the press," he wrote. He spent the rest of his career recasting its arguments — the Enquiries, a six-volume History of England that made him famous as a historian, and the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, a demolition of the design argument he judged too explosive to publish.

Topics David Hume addresses

• impressions and ideas
• the copy principle
• relations of ideas versus matters of fact
• Hume's fork
• causation as constant conjunction
• necessary connection
• the problem of induction
• custom and habit
• the bundle theory of self
• personal identity
• the is/ought gap
• reason as the slave of the passions
• moral judgments as sentiment
• the moral sense
• sympathy
• the passions
• direct and indirect passions
• pride and humility
• the artificial virtues
• the natural virtues
• justice as artificial virtue
• mitigated skepticism
• the design argument critique
• miracles

Questions to put to David Hume

The Science of Man

• What's the difference between impressions and ideas?
• How does the copy principle work, and what does it rule out?
• What's the missing shade of blue, and why does it matter?
• What do you mean by relations of ideas versus matters of fact?
• Why do you say most metaphysics should be committed to the flames?

Causation and the External World

• What do we actually observe when we see one event cause another?
• Where does our idea of necessary connection come from?
• Why can't reason justify our belief that the future will resemble the past?
• How do custom and habit ground our everyday beliefs about the world?
• What's at stake for you in the critique of causation?

Personal Identity and the Self

• What do you find when you look inward for a continuing self?
• How does the bundle theory of self work?
• Why did you express dissatisfaction with your account in the Appendix?
• What holds the bundle of perceptions together over time?
• How should I think about my own identity if there's no continuing 'I'?

Morality and the Passions

• What do you mean when you say reason is the slave of the passions?
• How do moral judgments arise from sentiment rather than reason?
• What's the is/ought gap, and why does it matter?
• What's the difference between natural and artificial virtues?
• How does sympathy make moral judgment intersubjective?

Religion and Miracle

• Why can't testimony establish that a miracle occurred?
• What's wrong with the design argument for God's existence?
• How do you argue that the problem of evil undermines natural theology?
• What does the historical development of religion tell us about its truth?
• Why did you wait until after your death to publish the Dialogues?

Mitigated Skepticism

• What's the skeptical recoil you describe in the Treatise?
• Why does a game of backgammon cure philosophical melancholy?
• How is mitigated skepticism different from total skepticism?
• Can we live with the skeptical conclusions about causation and the self?
• What role does natural belief play in your philosophy?

Converse with David Hume on Simposeum. Replies are grounded in David Hume's own writing, cited to the page.