The Pursuits of Philosophy ; A Introduction to the Life and Thought and David Hume

Baier, Annette C.

ISBN 10: 0674061683 / ISBN 13: 9780674061682

Published by Havard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London, 2011

About this Item

12mo [approx 12.7x18.7cm]. Near Fine condition in aVery Good Dustjacket. Dustjacket now protected in our purpose-made clear archival plastic sleeve. An excellent copy. Small abrason to lower edge of DJ spine. Includes both Name and Subject Indexes. 165 pages. An engaging guide that, with scholarship and incisive commentary, weaves Hume's autobiography, writings and correspondence to show new ways to illuminate his ideas. Robust, professional packaging and tracking provided for all parcels.

Seller Inventory # 327211

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Pursuits of Philosophy ; A Introduction to the Life and Thought and David Hume
• Publisher: Havard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts & London
• Publication Date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674061683
• ISBN 13: 9780674061682
• Binding: Hardback
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy

About this title

Synopsis

Marking the tercentenary of David Hume's birth, Annette Baier has created an engaging guide to the philosophy of one of the greatest thinkers of Enlightenment Britain. Drawing deeply on a lifetime of scholarship and incisive commentary, she deftly weaves Hume’s autobiography together with his writings and correspondence, finding in these personal experiences new ways to illuminate his ideas about religion, human nature, and the social order.

Excerpts from Hume’s autobiography at the beginning of each chapter open a window onto the eighteenth-century context in which Hume’s philosophy developed. Famous in Christian Britain as a polymath and a nonbeliever, Hume recounts how his early encounters with clerical authority laid the foundation for his lifelong skepticism toward religion. In Scotland, where he grew up, he had been forced to study lists of sins in order to spot his own childish flaws, he reports. Later, as a young man, he witnessed the clergy’s punishment of a pregnant unmarried servant, and this led him to question the violent consequences of the Church’s emphasis on the doctrine of original sin. Baier’s clear interpretation of Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature explains the link between Hume’s growing disillusionment and his belief that ethics should be based on investigations of human nature, not on religious dogma.

Four months before he died, Hume concluded his autobiography with a eulogy he wrote for his own funeral. It makes no mention of his flaws, critics, or disappointments. Baier’s more realistic account rivets our attention on connections between the way Hume lived and the way he thought―insights unavailable to Hume himself, perhaps, despite his lifelong introspection.

About the Author

Annette C. Baier was Distinguished Service Professor of Philosophy, Emerita, at the University of Pittsburgh. She also taught at the philosophy department of the University of Otago in New Zealand.