The Permanent Significance of Hume's Philosophy

Philosophy ◽  
1940 ◽  
Vol 15 (57) ◽  
pp. 7-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. H. Price
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Symbolic Logic ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
The Press ◽  
The World ◽  
Classical Statement ◽  
The Subject ◽  
European Thought

The subject of my lecture is an appropriate one for several reasons. The first is purely chronological. Hume's first and greatest work, the Treatise of Human Nature, was published in 1739, two hundred years ago. Its illustrious author was then quite unknown in the world, and as he tells us himself the book “fell dead-born from the press.” But by the end of the eighteenth century its reputation was securely established, and it has long been regarded as one of the masterpieces of European thought, and as the classical statement of the Empiricist Philosophy. It is true that, like other classics, it has had its ups and downs. During the Absolute Idealist period, which ended early in the present century, Hume was the great bogey-man, and the duty of all self-respecting philosophers was to refute him. In our own day things are different. Empiricism, despite many obituary notices, is very much alive again. And this time it is in close alliance with Natural Science, and has equipped itself with all the technique of modern Symbolic Logic; it is more vigorous in construction and more formidable in criticism than it has ever been before. Consequently Hume is no longer the bogey-man. People now read the Treatise not as an awful warning, but as a source of stimulus and illumination. Incidentally, we can now enjoy his admirable style without any qualms. It is no longer thought that if a philosopher writes in clear and entertaining English, what he writes must therefore be either superficial or false. We regard obscurity and turgidity as demerits, not as signs of profound thinking. Moreover, we have learned to appreciate the eighteenth century, of which Hume was one of the most characteristic products.

Nauczyciel w czasie edukacji zdalnej w polskich tygodnikach opinii. Analiza dyskursu

2021 ◽  
pp. 59-74
Author(s):  
Justyna Dobrołowicz
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Specific Power ◽  
Remote Work ◽  
Sociological Perspective ◽  
The Press ◽  
The World ◽  
Communication Activity ◽  
The Subject

The aim of the research presented in this article is to identify the ways in which theopinion-forming press presents teachers and their remote work with students. I assume thatby constructing press statements: mentioning or concealing certain topics, using specificlinguistic forms – journalists influence what readers think about Polish teachers, how theyevaluate their attitude to work and its effects. The problems raised in the research fall withinthe field of pedeutology – a pedagogical subdiscipline examining the teaching profession.Pedeutology helps to understand the specificity of a teacher’s work, analyses its determinants,creates models of professional competences. I have made the subject of my research thepress discourse understood as a communication activity, as a result of which we learn tothink about the world in a certain way. Although the concept of discourse is currently a usefuland popular research category, it still causes many definition difficulties. I am closest tothe sociological perspective of understanding discourse, according to which discourse hasa specific power to create the world, because it provides its participants with ways ofunderstanding reality. Getting to know the press discourse about teachers is thereforea very important matter, the way of writing about this professional group determines howpeople perceive it and how to behave towards it. The method of analysing the 18 presstexts selected for the study is a critical discourse analysis, which was used to answer thefollowing research question: what linguistic means were used in the discourse on teacher’sremote work and what the effects of this discourse may be. In the analysed texts about distance education, mainly expressions with a clearly negative semantic character are used,which in turn leads to discrediting teachers and shapes the belief about the crisis situationin education.

Hume and the Customary Causes of Industry, Knowledge and Humanity

2018 ◽  
pp. 184-207
Author(s):  
Christopher J. Berry
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Change ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Subject Matter ◽  
Causal Analysis ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Scientific Analysis ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject

Examines Hume’s account of economic development as a subset of the history of civilisation, which is presented by him as a history of customs and manners. Since Hume believes that the subject matter of ‘economics’ is amenable to scientific analysis, the focus is on his employment of causal analysis and how he elaborates an analysis of customs as causes to account for social change. This is executed chiefly via an examination Hume’s Essays, though the History of England (as a test case) and the Treatise of Human Nature for its expression of Hume’s seminal analysis of causation are also incorporated.

Petroleum Genesis as a Problem of Transdisciplinary Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 125-141
Author(s):  
Irina A. Gerasimova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Transdisciplinary Research ◽  
Environmental Research ◽  
Conceptual Basis ◽  
Transdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Scientific Discussion ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Object Relationship

The problem of petroleum genesis is fundamental for natural science. Scientific discussion on the problem of petroleum genesis originated with the science of theModern time and continues to this day. Physicists, chemists, biologists, geologists, geophysicists and cosmologists take part in the discussion. The problem attracts the attention of philosophers on science in many aspects. The author believes that it is necessary to conduct research of a transdisciplinary type that combines natural science and philosophical knowledge. Transdisciplinary research allows conceptually combine different scales of vision, different languages and standards of justification for specific sciences. The prerequisite for a transdisciplinary approach on the part of natural scientists can be the synergetic setting of theoretical constructions. V.I. Vernadsky’s concept of biosphere and noosphere, which is included in the scientific picture of the world, can serve as philosophical and conceptual basis. Transdisciplinary discussion on the petroleum genesis involve the analysis of philosophical, socio-psychological and concrete scientific aspects. The author carries out the logical and methodological analysis of the hypothesis of D.I. Mendeleev. The author comes to the conclusion that the philosophical type of argumentation prevails. The basis for a new dialogue should be the subject- subject-object relationship. The principles of the philosophy of complexity can be used when discussing the problems of geoecology and specific environmental research areas.

Review of Locke's Essay and the Rhetoric of Science by Peter Walmsley

Locke Studies ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 225-230
Author(s):  
G. A. J. Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Modern Philosophy ◽  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
John Locke ◽  
English Literature ◽  
Rhetoric Of Science ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject

From at least Kenneth MacLean’s John Locke and English Literature of the Eighteenth Century (1936) Locke’s Essay has been the subject of a large number of works that are classified as contributions to literary criticism. Indeed, it is doubtful if any other work of philosophy in English has attracted such attention. The reasons for this are undoubtedly overdetermined. No other work of modern philosophy, and perhaps no other work of any kind, had such an impact as did Locke’s on the eighteenth century. But Walmsley’s is not an attempt to chart that impact. Rather, it sets out to examine Locke’s language and relate it to his contemporaries, especially those who would now be regarded as scientists, even though the term in Locke’s day did not exist. It was Locke’s fellow members of the Royal Society, the virtuosi of Oxford and London and their fellow-travellers, to whom the Essay was addressed, and his language shared their common assumptions about the world at large and our place in it. It was Locke’s task in part to provide argument for those assumptions and to provide a grounding for a view of the world that was to hold sway—indeed, perhaps it still does—for at least a century.

An Enquiry Concerning the Humean Woman

Philosophy ◽  
1981 ◽  
Vol 56 (217) ◽  
pp. 303-312
Author(s):  
Christine Battersby
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Sexual Differences ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Systematic Treatment ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Historical Writings ◽  
Biological Differences ◽  
Specific Section

To discover David Hume's views on women it is necessary to bring together remarks scattered somewhat sparsely throughout his philosophical and historical writings. Although the titles of Hume's major works might suggest that he was describing the understanding and nature of all human beings, both male and female, in none of the works do we find a specific section devoted to an analysis of sexual differences in these two respects. There is a tidy chapter on female morality in A Treatise of Human Nature, but nothing comparable for female nature as such (T, 570–573). This omission does not, however, imply that Hume thought that biological differences had no concomitants in character and understanding. Neither, despite Hume's bantering remark that an essay on a ‘Subject so little to be understood as Women’ would be ‘unintelligible’, does this neglect imply that Hume was uncertain about these attendant differences (L, i, 45). Hume's exclusion of such a section seems to stem only from his desire to stress human uniformity, not from any lack of recognition of human variety. Because of the absence of any systematic treatment of the subject by Hume, it is necessary to proceed cautiously in interpreting his remarks on women. There is a further reason for caution in that Hume offers ‘jests and pleasantries’ as well as more serious comments on this subject; Hume, on occasions, gallantly woos his so-called ‘favourites’, his female readers, and when he does so sincerity is gallantly put aside.

Feudal Aspects of National Socialism

1960 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 921-933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Koehl
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
National Socialism ◽  
The Other ◽  
Unexpected Result ◽  
Ideal Types ◽  
Working Models ◽  
Feudal Society ◽  
The World ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
The Subject

Attempts to establish a “morphology of civilizations” seem to continue in spite of dire warnings from scholars. Indeed, while rejecting Toynbee and Sorokin with one hand, many a scholar has beckoned with the other to adventurous young men to leave the barren tracts of specialization and re-enter the broad panoramic fields of Weltgeschichte. Current interest in “comparative feudal institutions” illustrates the case in point.The notion that “feudalism” is a “form of society,” especially a “stage in development,” can be traced back to Marxist historiography, and from there back to eighteenth century French thinkers. But instead of becoming thoroughly discredited, the notion has recently led to new thinking on the subject which may turn out to be fruitful. In Feudalism in History for example, Rushton Coulborn, has combined eight separate papers on feudalism in various parts of the world by different historians, with his own critical and synthetic studies. Though he fails to find even one “fully developed” feudal society according to his own definition—a not unexpected result—his study contains an amazing amount of suggestive analysis.His suggestions are particularly valuable in the construction of “working models” or “ideal types” as research tools. Even when we remain safely within our own “fields,” if we are to go beyond highly specialized fact-gathering and at the same time avoid “presentisi subjectivism,” we will need such tools.

A Change in Manner: Hume's Scepticism in the Treatise and the first Enquiry

1999 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miriam McCormick
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The Press

The year before his death, Hume asked his publisher to affix an advertisement to all existing and future editions of his works. In this advertisement, Hume disavows the Treatise and directs all criticism to his later work. Hume himself is relatively clear as to why he preferred this later work. In his autobiography, when discussing the poor public reception given his Treatise, Hume says, ‘I had always entertained a Notion, that my want of Success in publishing the Treatise of human nature, had proceeded more from the manner than the matter; and that I had been guilty of a very usual Indiscretion, in going to the Press too early.’ In a letter to Gilbert Elliot, written in 1751, Hume says that ‘The philosophical Principles are the same in both’ the Treatise and the first Enquiry.

Oswald Spengler and the Theory of Historical Cycles

Antiquity ◽  
1927 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 311-325 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. Collingwood
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
General Theory ◽  
The West ◽  
Long Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Early Eighteenth Century ◽  
Historical Cycles ◽  
European Thought ◽  
Complete History

Since Plato announced that the course of history returned upon itself in 72,000 years, since Polybius discerned a “circular movement” by which the history of states came back, over and over again, to the same point, the theory of historical cycles has been a commonplace of European thought. Familiar to the thinkers of the Renaissance, it was modified by Vico in the early eighteenth century and again by Hegel in the early nineteenth; and a complete history of the idea would show many curious transformations and cover a long period of time. Here no attempt will be made to summarize this story; the subject of the present paper is the latest and, to ourselves, most striking exposition of the general theory, contained in Dr Oswald Spengler’s Decline of the West.

scholarly journals THE USE OF PRACTICAL METHODS IN THE STUDY OF THE SUBJECT “NATURAL SCIENCE PICTURE OF THE WORLD” BY HUMANITIES STUDENTS

2020 ◽  
pp. 144-150
Author(s):  
Зоя Алексеевна Скрипко
Keyword(s):  
Natural Science ◽  
Practical Training ◽  
Main Task ◽  
Training Methods ◽  
The World ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Humanities Students ◽  
Scientific Worldview ◽  
Independent Work ◽  
The Relationship

Обсуждается значение предмета «Естественно-научная картина мира» для студентов гуманитарных факультетов, основной задачей которого является формирование естественно-научного мировоззрения. Приводятся наиболее эффективные и научно обоснованные практические методы и подходы, дополняющие лекционный курс и повышающие степень самостоятельной работы студентов-гуманитариев. Использование предложенных методов позволяет определить степень сформированности общекультурных компетенций у студентов. Учитывая гуманитарную направленность студентов, можно предположить, что одним из эффективных методов практических самостоятельных работ является структурирование изучаемого материала путем составления интегративных таблиц, в которых систематизированы естественно-научные знания по определенным разделам, соответствующим изучаемому материалу. Одновременно с этим приводятся наиболее известные культурно-исторические события, относящиеся к данному периоду времени. Использование интегративных таблиц помогает формировать мировоззрение, основанное на понимании связей между природой, человеком, его идеями и развитием человеческой цивилизации. Обращается внимание на специфику лабораторных работ для студентов-гуманитариев. The importance of the subject “Natural Science Picture of the World” is discussed for students of humanitarian faculties, the main task of which is the formation of a natural science worldview. Given the psychophysiological characteristics of humanities students, practical training methods are proposed for the successful formation of a scientific worldview. The most effective and scientifically based practical methods and approaches are given that complement the lecture course and increase the degree of students’ independent work. Using the proposed methods allows us to determine the degree of formation of general cultural competencies among students. Given the humanitarian orientation of students, it can be assumed that one of the effective methods of practical independent work is the structuring of the material studied by compiling integrative tables. Turning to integrative tables, which systematize natural science knowledge in certain sections corresponding to the material being studied, at the same time, the most famous cultural and historical events related to this period of time are given, students have an increase in the relationship between objects, complex systemic laws occur in the process of integrating knowledge. The use of integrative tables helps to form a worldview based on an understanding of the connections between nature, man, his ideas and the development of human civilization. Also, attention is paid to the specifics of laboratory work for humanities students.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document