|
(out of stock until March 2006)
David
Hume sought to create a comprehensive "science of man" in order to understand human nature and human actions. He saw
a constant social and political tension between liberty and
authority, and he developed extensive political and economic
theories to describe this conflict.
He
believed there is an inescapable moral dimension to human life,
and it is found in emotions rather than reason.
Moral concepts originate from a social perspective, not
a personal one; and morality does not require a religious
foundation. Hume concluded that we cannot reason about the cause
of natural order because we have no experience of that cause.
Hume believed that God is a kind of "principle of intelligibility",
only remotely resembling the human mind.
In
his scientific philosophy, Hume denied that we can isolate objects
and understand them outside their context (beyond the influence
of other objects). Hume's great discovery was the concept that
the mind itself organizes our experience, making objective
knowledge impossible. This insight was later expanded by Kant
into a broad philosophical revolution, with credit given to
Hume.
For
Hume, "philosophy is common sense methodized and corrected."
Human beings have but two tasks: the theoretical task of discovering
how the world really is, and the practical task of making the
physical environment serve human purposes.
|
