Hume: A Very Short Introduction (1980)

by A. J. Ayer

Series: A Very Short Introduction (33)

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The scholar A. J. Ayer's comprehensive study of the life and works of David Hume opens up an important area of British philosophical thinking and makes available one of Britain's greatest thinkers to a wide audience.

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12/6/21

laplantelibrary | Dec 6, 2021 |

After a short introductory chapter on Hume's life, the book consists of transcripts of 4 lectures Ayer gave on Hume and it shows. It is very much Ayer's assessment of Hume and where he agrees and disagrees philosophically with him rather than an introduction to Hume. (

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Robertgreaves | May 26, 2019 |

The British Empirical Tradition in all its Scottish glory.

mdstarr | Sep 11, 2011 |

The British Empirical Tradition in all its Scottish glory.

muir | Nov 9, 2007 |

Hume is one of the greatest of all British philosophers, and even in his own lifetime was celebrated as one of the pivotal figures of the Enlightenment. A central theme of his philosophy is the conviction that questions traditionally thought of as completely independent of the scientific realm's questions about the mind, about morality, and about God, for example's are actually best explained using the experimental methods characteristic of the natural sciences. Hume's 'naturalist' approach to a wide variety of philosophical topics resulted in highly original theories about perception, self-identity, causation, morality, politics, and religion, all of which are discussed in this stimulating introduction by A J Ayer, himself one of the twentieth century's most important philosophers. Ayer also gives an account of Hume's fascinating life and character, and includes generous quotations from Hume's lucid and often witty writings.

antimuzak | May 29, 2007 |

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A Very Short Introduction (33)

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I corvi [Dall'Oglio / Corbaccio] (204)

Kopstukken Filosofie

Past Masters (1980)

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Canonical title

Hume: A Very Short Introduction

Original title

Hume

Alternative titles

Hume: A Very Short Introduction

Original publication date

1980

People/Characters

David Hume

Important places

Scotland, UK

Important events

Related movies

Epigraph

Dedication

First words

David Hume, to my mind the greatest of all British philosophers, was born in Edinburgh on what, in the old calendar, was 26 April 1711.

Quotations

Hume's gift for irony matches that of his fellow historian Edward Gibbon, and like Gibbon he is most ready to display it when he writes about religion. Thus in his essay 'On the Immortality of the Soul', which we have seen that he refrained from publishing during his lifetime, he remarkss that 'Nothing could set in a fuller light the infinite obligations which mankind have to Divine revelation; since we find, that no other medium could ascertain this great and important truth'. More straightforwardlly, he concludes the chapter of the Enquiry in which he has shown that there cannot be an justification for a belief in miracles by asserting 'that the Christian Religion not only was first attended with miracles, but even to this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one. (Chap.2, "Aims and Methods")

Hume is consistently hostile to Christianity, both on intellectual and on moral grounds. Thus in his essay "The Natural History of Religion', he quotes with approval the verdict of 'Averroes, the famous Arabian', 'that of all religions, the most absurd and nonsensical is that, whose votaries eat, after having created their deity' and adds for his own part 'that there is no tenet in all paganizm which would give so fair a scope to ridicule as that of the real prescence; for it is so absurd that it eludes the force of all argument.' (Chap.2, "Aims and Methods")

For a start, there are the assumptions involved in characterizing anything as a physical object of an observable kind. It has to be accessible to more than one sense and to any suitably equipped observer. It has to be capable of existing unperceived. It has to occupy a position or series of positions in three-dimensional space and to persist throughout some period of time. (Chap.3, "Bodies and Selves")

Hume accords the phenomenon of constancy the primary role in causing the imagination to transform impressions into enduring objects, but he does not think it sufficient on its own. It is adided in its work by what he calls coherence, of which he gives two examples. The first example is that of his returning to his room after an hour's absence to find that his fire is burning less brightly. Since he has frequently witnessed the process of his fire's dying down, his imagination fills in the gap. (Chap.3, "Bodies and Selves")

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Disambiguation notice

Originally published: Oxford : Oxford University Press, 1980, in series: Past masters.

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English UK

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The scholar A. J. Ayer's comprehensive study of the life and works of David Hume opens up an important area of British philosophical thinking and makes available one of Britain's greatest thinkers to a wide audience.

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