Delphi Complete Works of David Hume

by David Hume

The Scottish philosopher, historian and essayist David Hume is known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. Hume conceived philosophy as the inductive, experimental science of human nature, building on the epistemology of the English philosopher John Locke, which enabled him to explore how the mind acquires knowledge. This comprehensive eBook presents Hume’s complete works, with numerous illustrations, rare texts appearing in digital print for the first time, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Hume’s life and works* Concise introductions to the novels and other texts* All the essays and treatises, with individual contents tables* Includes rare essays appearing for the first time in digital publishing* Images of how the books were first published, giving your eReader a taste of the original texts* Excellent formatting of the texts* Includes Hume’s letters* Features two biographies – discover Hume’s intriguing life* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary BooksA TREATISE OF HUMAN NATUREAN ABSTRACT OF A BOOK LATELY PUBLISHED ENTITLED A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE ETC.ESSAYS, MORAL, POLITICAL, AND LITERARYA LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN TO HIS FRIEND IN EDINBURGHAN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDINGA TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE BEHAVIOURS AND CONDUCT OF ARCHIBALD STEWARTAN ENQUIRY CONCERNING THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALSLETTER TO THE AUTHOR OF THE DELINEATION OF THE NATURE AND OBLIGATION OF MORALITYSCOTTICISMSFOUR DISSERTATIONSTHE HISTORY OF ENGLANDDIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGIONThe AutobiographyMY OWN LIFEThe BiographiesLIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF DAVID HUME by John Hill BurtonBRIEF DAVID HUME by John Malcolm Mitchell

Genres: Philosophy, History

21800 pages, Kindle Edition

Published August 17, 2016

About the author

David Hume was a Scottish historian, philosopher, economist, diplomat and essayist known today especially for his radical philosophical empiricism and scepticism.

In light of Hume's central role in the Scottish Enlightenment, and in the history of Western philosophy, Bryan Magee judged him as a philosopher "widely regarded as the greatest who has ever written in the English language." While Hume failed in his attempts to start a university career, he took part in various diplomatic and military missions of the time. He wrote The History of England which became a bestseller, and it became the standard history of England in its day.

His empirical approach places him with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others at the time as a British Empiricist.

Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature. In opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably René Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behaviour. He also argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience. He argued that inductive reasoning and therefore causality cannot be justified rationally. Our assumptions in favour of these result from custom and constant conjunction rather than logic. He concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self.

Hume's compatibilist theory of free will proved extremely influential on subsequent moral philosophy. He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles, and expounded the is–ought problem.

Hume has proved extremely influential on subsequent western philosophy, especially on utilitarianism, logical positivism, William James, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive philosophy, theology and other movements and thinkers. In addition, according to philosopher Jerry Fodor, Hume's Treatise is "the founding document of cognitive science". Hume engaged with contemporary intellectual luminaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Boswell, and Adam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy). Immanuel Kant credited Hume with awakening him from "dogmatic slumbers".