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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 20: David Hume-Of Essay Writing ...

Unit 20: David Hume-Of Essay Writing: Critical Notes
Appreciation and Analysis

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction
20.1 Context
20.2 Of Essay Writing: Critical Analysis
20.3 Beauty and Taste in Hume’s Moral Theory
20.4 Hume’s Essay on Taste
20.5 Hume’s Essay on Tragedy
20.6 David Hume–A Critical Analysis
20.7 Summary
20.8 Key-Words
20.9 Review Questions
20.10 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Understand Hume’s context and Terminology
• Discuss Hume’s Essay on Taste and on Tragedy
• Analyse Hume’s Of Essay Writing
Introduction

David Hume (1711–1776) was born in Edinburgh, and was trained for the law. He early showed
an eager interest in philosophy, and devoted himself to study with such intensity as to injure his
health. He traveled in France more than once, and was on intimate terms with such men as
d’Alembert, Turgot, and Rousseau, for the last of whom he found a pension and a temporary
refuge in England.
Hume is most celebrated for his philosophical writings, in which he carried the empirical philosophy
of Locke to the point of complete skepticism. He wrote also a “History of England” in eight
volumes, and a large number of treatises and essays on politics, economics, ethics, and esthetics.
The following essay, “Of the Standard of Taste,” is a typical example of his clear thinking and
admirable style. “He may be regarded,” says Leslie Stephen, “as the acutest thinker in Great
Britain of the eighteenth century, and the most qualified interpreter of its intellectual tendencies.”

20.1 Context
Hume’s aesthetic theory received limited attention until the second half of the Twentieth Century,
when interest in the full range of Hume’s thought was enlivened by the gradual recognition of his
importance among philosophers writing in English. Unfortunately, many discussions of Hume’s
aesthetics concentrate on a single late essay, “Of the Standard of Taste” (1757). This emphasis
misrepresents the degree to which Hume’s aesthetic theory is integrated into his philosophical system.

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