Synopses & Reviews
Norman Kemp Smith's
The Philosophy of David Hume continues to be unsurpassed in its comprehensive coverage of the ideas and issues of Hume's Treatise. Now, after years of waiting, this currently out-of-print and highly sought-after classic is being re-issued. This ground-breaking book has long been regarded as a classic study by scholars in the field, yet a new introduction by Don Garrett places the book in its contemporary context, showing Humes's continuing importance in the field.
Synopsis
Norman Kemp Smith's The Philosophy of David Hume has long been regarded as a classic study by scholars in the field - a ground-breaking book that has since been unsurpassed in its comprehensive coverage of the ideas and issues of Hume's Treatise. This reissue brings this currently out-of-print and highly sought-after classic up-to-date with a new introduction by Don Garrett. Garrett's new introduction sets the book in its contemporary context and makes the case for its continuing importance in the field of Hume scholarship.
About the Author
Norman Kemp Smith (1872-1958) was Professor of Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Edinburgh. Amongst his books are
New Studies in the Philosophy of Descartes,
The Credibility of Divine Existence and his translation of Kant's
Critique of Pure Reason.
Don Garrett is Kenan Distinguished Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the University of North Carlolina, Chapel Hill. He is the Co-Editor of the journal Hume Studies, and The Encyclopedia of Empiricism, author of Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Spinoza and Early Modern Philosophy (OUP forthcoming).
Table of Contents
Introduction--Don Garrett * Preface to the First Edition * Bibliography * Abbreviations * PART I: THE ORIGINS OF HUME'S PHILOSOPHY * Introductory: The Distinctive Principles and Ethical Origins of Hume's Philosophy * Hutcheson's Teaching and Its Influence on Hume * The Influence of Newton and of Locke * PART II: PRELIMINARY SIMPLIFIED STATEMENT OF HUME'S CENTRAL DOCTRINES, TAKEN MAINLY IN THE ORDER OF THEIR EXPOSITION IN THE
TREATISE AND
ENQUIRIES * Current Misunderstandings of Hume's Teachings * Preliminary Outline Statement of Hume's Teaching as Expounded in
Parts i, iii and iv of Book I of the
Treatise * Preliminary Outline Statement of Hume's Theory of Morals, as Expounded in Books II and III of the
Treatise * PART III: DETAILED CONSIDERATION OF THE CENTRAL DOCTRINES, TAKEN IN WHAT MAY BE PRESUMED TO HAVE BEEN THE ORDER OF THEIR FIRST DISCOVERY * Doctrine of the Passions and of Sympathy in Its Bearing on Hume's Theory of Morals * The Indirect Passions of Pride and Humility, Love and Hatred; And in Connection Therewith Hume's First Statement and Application of the Principles of Association * The Function of Reason in the Moral Sphere * The Opening Sections of the
Treatise, as Predetermined by Hume's Early Doctrine of Belief * Memory, the Association of Ideas, and Its Products * Abstract Ideas * Hume's Version of Hutcheson's Teaching That Space and Time are Non-Sensational 'Knowledge' in the Strict Sense of the Term * Belief in Causality: The Nature of Causal 'Inference' * Belief in Causality: The Origin of the Idea of Necessity * The Causal Maxim Neither Self-Evident nor Demonstrable: Its Sanctions Solely Those of Natural Belief * Probability of Chances and Probability of Causes * Liberty and Necessity * The Sceptical and the Positive Aspects of Hume's Doctrine of Natural Belief * Belief as It Enters into Sense-Perception * 'Identity' and 'Substance' in Their Bearing on the Nature of the Self * PART IV: THE FINAL OUTCOME * The Relation of the
Treatise to the
Enquiries * Concluding
af1 Comments * Index of Proper Names