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Unit 19: David Hume-of Essay Writing: Introduction and Detailed Study

• In 1754 to 1762 Hume published the History of England, a 6-volume work of immense sweep, Notes
which extends, says its subtitle, “From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in
1688”.
• Hume’s coverage of the political upheavals of the 17th century relied in large part on the Earl
of Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (1646-69). Generally Hume
took a moderate Royalist position and thought revolution was unnecessary. Hume’s indeed
was considered a Tory history, and emphasized religious differences more than constitutional
issues. He was anti-Presbyterian, anti-Puritan, anti-Whig, and pro-monarchy. Historians
have debated whether Hume posited a universal unchanging human nature, or allowed for
evolution and development.
• Hume was an early cultural historian of science. His short biographies of leading scientists
explored the process of scientific change. He developed new ways of seeing scientists in the
context of their times by looking at how they interacted with society and each other. He
covers over forty scientists, with special attention paid to Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, and
Isaac Newton. Hume awarded the palm of greatness to William Harvey.
• Hume’s anti-rationalism informed much of his theory of belief and knowledge, in his treatment
of the notions of induction, causation, and the external world. But it was not confined to this
sphere, and permeated just as strongly his theories of motivation, action, and morality. In a
famous sentence in the Treatise, Hume circumscribes reason’s role in the production of action:
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other
office than to serve and obey them. It has been suggested that this position can be lucidly
brought out through the metaphor of “direction of fit”: beliefs—the paradigmatic products
of reason—are propositional attitudes that aim to have their content fit the world; conversely,
desires—or what Hume calls passions, or sentiments—are states that aim to fit the world to
their contents. Though a metaphor, it has been argued that this intuitive way of understanding
Hume’s theory that desires are necessary for motivation “captures something quite deep in
our thought about their nature”. Hume’s anti-rationalism has been very influential, and
defended in contemporary philosophy of action by neo-Humeans such as Michael Smith and

Simon Blackburn. The major opponents of the Humean view are cognitivists about what it is

to act for a reason, such as John McDowell, and Kantians, such as Christine Korsgaard.
• Hume, along with Thomas Hobbes, is cited as a classical compatibilist about the notions of

freedom and determinism. The thesis of compatibilism seeks to reconcile human freedom
with the mechanist belief that human beings are part of a deterministic universe, whose
happenings are governed by the laws of physics.
• Hume argued that the dispute about the compatibility of freedom and determinism has been
kept afloat by ambiguous terminology: From this circumstance alone, that a controversy has
been long kept on foot... we may presume, that there is some ambiguity in the expression. [78]
Hume defines the concepts of “necessity” and “liberty” as follows:
• Miracles by definition are singular events that differ from the established Laws of Nature.
The Laws of Nature are codified as a result of past experiences.
• Hume gave a criticism of the design argument in Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
• Design can account for only a tiny part of our experience of order.
• Hume expressed suspicion of attempts to reform society in ways that departed from long-
established custom, and he counselled peoples not to resist their governments except in cases
of the most egregious tyranny.However, he resisted aligning himself with either of Britain’s
two political parties, the Whigs and the Tories. Hume writes My views of things are more
conformable to Whig principles; my representations of persons to Tory prejudices.

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