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Hume Studies

Volume 32, Issue 1, April 2006

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1. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
David Fate Norton, Dario Perinetti The Bibliothèque raisonnée Review of Volume 3 of the Treatise: Authorship, Text, and Translation
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The review of volume 3 of Hume’s Treatise, a review that appeared in the Bibliothèque raisonnée in the spring of 1741, was the first published responseto Hume’s ethical theory. This review is also of interest because of questions that have arisen about its authorship and that of the earlier review of volume 1 of the Treatise in the same journal. In Part 1 of this paper we attribute to Pierre Des Maizeaux the notice of vols. 1 and 2 of the Treatise published in the spring 1739 issue of the Bibliothèque raisonnée. We then focus on the question of the authorship of the review of vol. 3. In Part 2 of our paper we provide a transcription of the French text of this review. Part 3 is a new English translation of the review. Part 4 provides comparisons between passages from the textof the Treatise, the French translations of these passages in the Bibliothèque raisonnée review, and our back-translations of these same passages. We alsoprovide brief comparisons between our translation of passages from this review and an earlier translation of these passages.
2. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
Jasper Reid The Metaphysics of Jonathan Edwards and David Hume
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This article compares Hume’s metaphysical views with those of his contemporary, the American theologian and philosopher, Jonathan Edwards. It shows how, although the two men developed their theories in isolation from one another, their minds were nevertheless following almost identical paths on several of the most central issues in metaphysics (including the natures of body and mind, personal identity, causation, and free will). Their final conclusions were, however, radically different. In short, wherever Hume came to rest in a skeptical position, Edwards would initially approach the very same position, but would then pull back at the last minute and bring in God to fill the gaps, yielding a Christian system of philosophy with an idiosyncratically Humean flavour.
3. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
Rich Foley Unnatural Religion: Indoctrination and Philo’s Reversal in Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
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Many interpretations of Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion have labored under the assumption that one of the characters represents Hume’s view on the Design Argument, and Philo is often selected for this role. I reject this opinion by showing that Philo is inconsistent. He offers a decisive refutation of the Design Argument, yet later endorses this very argument. I then dismiss two prominent ways of handling Philo’s reversal: first, I show that Philo is not ironic either in his skepticism or in his theistic reversal. Second, I reject the suggestion that the Design Argument is a natural belief, since it differs significantly from causal and external world beliefs. Finally, I argue that the control the Design Argument exerts is the product of a youthful indoctrination that prevents Philo from consistently maintaining his skeptical position.
4. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
Annette C. Baier How Wide Is Hume’s Circle?: (A question raised by the exchange between Erin I. Kelly and Louis E. Loeb, Hume Studies, November 2004)
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5. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
David Landy Hume’s Impression/Idea Distinction
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Understanding the distinction between impressions and ideas that Hume draws in the opening paragraphs of his A Treatise on Human Nature is essential for understanding much of Hume’s philosophy. This, however, is a task that has been the cause of a good deal of controversy in the literature on Hume. I here argue that the significant philosophical and exegetical issues previous treatments of this distinction (such as the force and vivacity reading and the external-world reading) encounter are extremely problematic. I propose an alternative reading of this distinction as being between original mental entities and copied mental entities. I argue that Hume takes himself to discover this distinction as that which underlies our pre-theoretical sorting of mental entities. Thus, while the Copy Principle is initially treated by Hume as a mere empirical fact, it later comes to play a more substantial explanatory role in his account of human nature. This reading makes Hume’s distinction a more philosophically robust one, and avoids many of the exegetical difficulties of previous interpretations.
6. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
Rolf George James Jurin Awakens Hume from His Dogmatic Slumber. With a Short Tract on Visual Acuity
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After a discourse about the literature on visual acuity before Hume, I discuss how the “size” of visual objects is defi ned and determined. I shall thenpresent circumstantial, but commanding, evidence for the infl uence of James Jurin’s Essay upon Distinct and Indistinct Vision on Hume’s thought. This workcontains well-supported findings incompatible with claims made in T 1.2, “Of the ideas of space and time,” and elsewhere. Specifically, the prominentprinciple of the Treatise, “[w]hat consists of parts is distinguishable into them, and what is distinguishable is separable” (T 1.2.1.3; SBN 27) is shown to befalse. A powerful principle, it is a premise to the most important arguments of the Treatise, but is shunned in the Enquiry and later writings because, I believe,Hume had read Jurin.
7. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
Ryu Susato Hume’s Nuanced Defense of Luxury
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The significance of Hume’s positive attitude towards luxury might have been overemphasized by his commentators. In fact, arguments in favor of “moderate” luxury had already been entertained before the emergence of Hume’s position. Therefore to argue that Hume’s argument entailed the defense of moderate luxury is not to identify in it anything particularly unique. Thus, the first aim of this paper is to clarify the nature of Hume’s contribution to the ongoing luxury debates. This does not consist merely of an assertion of the compatibility of moral virtue with the enjoyment of luxury, but lies rather in Hume’s emphasis on two aspects of the beneficial interaction between morality and luxury. First, the historical process of the introduction of luxury is regarded by Hume as fostering new morals peculiar to the commercial age; and secondly, the enjoyment of luxury is seen as a condition favorable to the maintenance of morals. The second aim of this paper is to shed some new light on an aspect of Hume’s thought that, so far, has been relatively neglected, namely, his distinction between “innocent” and “vicious” forms of luxury, as well as his acknowledgement of the possibility of the emergence of the latter, as well as the former, in the modern commercial world. However, this does not necessarily lead us to a more pessimistic interpretation of Hume’s view of luxury than those accepted thus far; only to the awareness of how difficult and delicate, in Hume’s view, is the maintenance of the balance between the interlinked concepts of industry, knowledge, and humanity.
book review
8. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
A. E. Pitson Of Liberty and Necessity: The Free Will Debate in Eighteenth-Century British Philosophy
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9. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
Call for Papers
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10. Hume Studies: Volume > 32 > Issue: 1
Call For Applications, 2008–9
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