Hume's System: An Examination of the First Book of His Treatise

ISBN-13: 9780198751007 / Angielski / Twarda / 1991 / 224 str.

David Pears

Opis

In this compelling analysis David Pears examines the foundations of Hume's theory of the mind as presented in the first book of the Treatise. Past studies have tended to take one of two extreme views: that Hume relies exclusively on a theory of meaning, or that he relies exclusively on a theory of truth and evidence. Steering a middle course between these positions, Pears argues that Hume's theory of ideas serves both functions. He examines in detail its application to three difficult problems: causation, personal identity, and sense perception. Hume's solutions, Pears argues, are not theories that can be given a place in standard classification of philosophical theories, but rather depend upon a subtle form of naturalism not altogether unlike Wittgenstein's naturalism. A clearly written and argued study, Hume's System will be of special interest to students and scholars of the history of philosophy.

Recenzje

each of these verbal portraits is true to its subject. And each conveys a lively impression not only of Hume, but of a second distinctive philosophical personality...the justification for working through this very stimulating book..is not to hear yet another scholarly voice in a debate over Hume as skeptic versus Hume as naturalist. It is to join a creative philosopher as he struggles, with Hume at his side, to illuminate problems that are as much our own as they were the eighteenth century's.

Spis treści

I: Hume's General Theory of Mind: A General Account of Hume's Theory of Mind; The Derivation of Ideas from Impressions; Memory; Belief and Existence; II: The Application of the Theory of Mind to Three Problems: Causation Personal Identity and Perception: Causation: The Evidence and its First Effect on Us; Causation: The Gap Between Evidence and Belief; Causation: The Second Effect of the Evidence; Personal Identity: The Problem an Hume's Rejection of Current Solutions; Personal Identity: Hume's solution and his later Recantation; Sense-Perception: Hume's Assessment of the Problem and his Strategy for Eliminating Current Solutions; Sense Perception: Hume's Heroic Solution