Science and Superstition: Hume and Conservatism

The common argument that Hume is a conservative is interrogated. Its accuracy once subject to further inspection is suspect and fails to capture a key characteristic of Hume’s socio-political thought. After identifying those aspects of Hume’s thought that most securely underwrite attributing the conservative label, it is argued nonetheless that the conservative label is at least insecure. It is further claimed that when his commitment to ‘science’ and his polemics against superstition, and other ‘chimerical’ practices and principles, are taken on board then the stronger case that the label is a distortion can be judged to have substance.

Hume and Superfluous Value (or the Problem with Epictetus’ Slippers)

Taking its cue from Epictetus’ condemnation of superfluous refinements, Hume’s defence of luxury is examined. This defence incorporates a rejection of the virtue of poverty and its conceptual replacement with a notion of impoverishment as undesirable. Hume identifies benefits from the pursuit of refinement at both the social and individual level. In the former it supplies an incentive that encourages industry and prosperity and in the former it vindicates the positive enjoyment that comes from material goods.

Hume and the Customary Causes of Industry, Knowledge and Humanity

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.

Adam Smith’s ‘Considerations’ on Language

Smith’s essay is placed in its biographical, cultural and intellectual contexts. The last of these focuses on the contemporary debates concerning the origin of language. The tenor of Smith’s argument is that language develops toward increasing abstraction and that this development is consonant with the development of society. This exposition is also comparative, as Smith’s argument is located alongside the views of a wide-range of his contemporaries.

Hume on Rationality in History and Social Life

After elaboration of the content and structure of Hume’s notion of human nature, his interpretation of superstition is examined. Hume’s ‘science of human nature’ permits him to label certain practices as depraved and to a discount the societal specificity of these practices. This means that Hume has, what is here called, a substantive theory of human nature with a formal theory of society which is the reverse of much modern (neo-Wittgensteinian) analysis.

‘But Art itself is Natural to Man’: Adam Ferguson and the Principle of Simultaneity

Despite a passage in his Institutes Ferguson does not systematically order his historical narrative in terms of what is labelled (as short-hand) the ‘four stages’. Ferguson’s conception and typology of ‘arts’ is explored; more particularly it addresses his argument that all the arts are co-eval in human experience. Hence Ferguson claims of the basic 3-fold classification (made in the Principles) of commercial, political and ornamental arts that they are simultaneous. As he recognises this means it is mistake to prioritise, both chronologically and conceptually, those arts which attend to the exigencies of material life over those which serve the need for mental attainment and ornament.

Rude Religion: The Psychology of Polytheism in the Scottish Enlightenment

An exploration of the reasoning behind the Scots' identification of polytheism as the first form of religion. The exploration focuses on the developmental psychology that the Scots assume to be operant. It is this that underwrites the various manifestations of their stadial theory. The discussion is structured around a comparison of Hume and Kames’ approaches to polytheism

‘Climate’ in the Eighteenth Century: James Dunbar and the Scottish Case

Climate as a category was often used to explain social diversity; the alternative was to invoke history. Dunbar provides a middle-way between these two positions, as represented by Montesquieu’s account of physical causes and Hume’s account of moral causes. He articulates a notion of local circumstances as a key to a reconciliation.

James Dunbar and the Enlightenment Debate on Language

Dunbar’s contribution to the widespread Enlightenment debate on the origin and development of language is explored. His account is compared to those offered by his contemporaries and his own four-fold development of human faculties outlined.

Adam Smith on Liberty ‘in our present sense of the word’

The paper explores what Smith’s self-conscious reference to freedom ‘in our present sense of the word’ reveals about his understanding of modernity. Using the exact textual reference in the Wealth of Nations, a distinction is drawn between private (discretionary) and civic liberty. The latter is outmoded as manifest in its support for sumptuary legislation and its embodiment in the restrictive practices of corporations. The former embodies the modern meaning of freedom because unlike the latter it enables the dissemination of universal opulence which the use of civic liberty constricts.