Philosophy 176

Passion, Doubt & Justice: Hume & the 18th Century Origin of the Social Sciences

We will be reading through David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739/40). The intention is for us to gain some sense of how the three books that comprise the Treatise fit together (or fail to fit together). Since we cannot read through the complete Treatise in one semester, we will focus on four themes (passions, causation, body, justice), having first looked at some basic elements of Hume’s system.

This is a lecture course designed primarily for upper division undergraduate students who have taken at least one course in philosophy.

Texts needed are David Hume, A Treatise concerning Human Nature and the preferred edition is: Selby-Bigge OUP. Recommended reading is Barry Stroud, Hume, Routledge.