1. Human nature

2021 ◽  
pp. 4-28
Author(s):  
James A. Harris
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Racial Difference ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Pierre Bayle ◽  
Theory Of Human Nature ◽  
Bernard Mandeville ◽  
Intellectual Crisis

‘Human nature’ looks at the theory of human nature developed by Hume in Books One and Two of A Treatise of Human Nature. In these books, Hume’s theory of nature is presented as an account of the faculty of understanding, of the passions, and of the relation between them. The biographical context for this theory of human nature is important here, in terms of the intellectual crisis that Hume went through in the early 1730s. Key influences on Hume’s theory of human nature included Pierre Bayle, Bernard Mandeville, and John Locke. Hume reformulated his theory of human nature in his later works. There are limitations of the theory as can be revealed in remarks made by Hume about racial difference.

Hume and the Legacy of Academic Scepticism

2019 ◽  
pp. 39-76
Author(s):  
Peter S. Fosl
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
David Hume ◽  
General Framework ◽  
John Locke ◽  
Early Modernity ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Pierre Bayle ◽  
The Middle Ages

Chapter Two of Hume’s Scepticism charts the development of Academic scepticism from Cicero and Augustine, through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and into early modernity. The exposition is organized around sceptical ideas that anticipated or may have influenced David Hume, who describes himself an ‘academical’ sceptic. The chapter also sets out Cicero’s influence upon Hume, scepticism at the college in La Flèche where Hume wrote much of A Treatise of Human Nature, and Hume’s self-conception of Academic scepticism. Accounts of sceptical ideas in Marin Mersenne, Simon Foucher, John Locke, Pierre-Daniel Huet, and Pierre Bayle set the stage for Hume’s own Academicism. The chapter closes with a five-point General Framework defining Academic Scepticism.

Parsing the Frost

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie Levinson ◽  
Marjorie Levinson
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Frost Formation ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature ◽  
Sensory Register

The reading of Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight” at the center of this chapter opens up the cognitive and aesthetic stakes of seeing writing. It does so by analyzing the encounter with visible script, an experience that can be understood as a reworking of a previously unrecognized source, the scene of writing in David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature, Book 4. Just such an encounter is the activity in play with the figure of the window frost and with the entire poem. Broadly speaking, sentence formation is seen as analogous to frost formation. In this way, the discussion seeks to shift the sensory register of criticism of the poem from its traditional emphasis on the acoustic to a new appreciation of the visible.

scholarly journals Thorstein Veblen on economic man: toward a new method of describing human nature, society, and history

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noriko Ishida
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Traditional Theory ◽  
Characteristic Method ◽  
Classical Concept ◽  
Qualitative Aspect ◽  
Thorstein Veblen ◽  
Economic Action ◽  
Economic Man ◽  
Logical Connection ◽  
Theory Of Human Nature

AbstractThe fact that Veblen was a keen critic of the neo-classical concept of “economic man” is well known. However, the following issues have not been discussed in enough depth: how he rebuilt the traditional theory of human nature through his new methodology of economics, how much his methodological revision broadened the scope of economics, and what kind of phenomena Veblen’s economic theory elucidates. This article examines these issues and aims to show the logical connection between Veblen’s controversial proposal on the methodology of economics and his analysis of economic phenomena. Specifically, it reconsiders Veblen’s analysis of economic action using a unique concept of instincts, his logic of explaining the relation between society and human nature, his way of drawing history from the relativistic worldview, and his characteristic method of grasping the cause and effect of economic phenomena. Finally, it highlights the importance of modifying the concept of “economic man” by focusing on the qualitative aspect. Particular reference is made to the economic concepts of utility, efficiency, and intangibility.

Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature.

1988 ◽  
Vol 97 (2) ◽  
pp. 263
Author(s):  
Michael Williams ◽  
Robert J. Fogelin
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Treatise Of Human Nature

scholarly journals Bacon's Philosophical Theory of Human-nature Relations

2015 ◽  
Vol 166 ◽  
pp. 655-659
Author(s):  
Elena Rubanova ◽  
Vitalij Rubanov ◽  
Yuliya Zeremskaya
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Philosophical Theory ◽  
Theory Of Human Nature

What Is Mencius' Theory of Human Nature?

1979 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Ho Hwang
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Theory Of Human Nature
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