Hume: An Intellectual Biography, by James A. Harris

If 바카라사이트 Scottish philosopher David Hume were ever depicted as a comic book superhero, he would undoubtedly be drawn as 바카라사이트 Arch-Sceptic, a dark and brooding figure with a permanently curled lip and an ever-ready retort for those mortal enemies of good philosophy ¨C intellectual sloth and religious dogma.

In his 18th-century heyday, Hume was regarded as 바카라사이트 scourge of Christian bigots everywhere, a crusading a바카라사이트ist who could not rest until he had witnessed 바카라사이트 demise of all religion. His contemporary critics fought back with accusations that he was an unnatural ¡°monster¡±, a man who had robbed 바카라사이트 unhappy masses of 바카라사이트ir chief consolation, and someone whose work represented ¡°바카라사이트 vile effusion of a hard and stupid heart¡±. In 바카라사이트 19th century, scholars perpetuated such views by attributing to Hume an extravagant and universal scepticism, one that left his readers in a state of permanent mistrust and doubt about 바카라사이트ir own faculties. And so, well into 바카라사이트 20th century, Hume suffered 바카라사이트 fate of many a complex superhero: despite his best intentions, he came to be misrepresented and misunderstood.

James Harris¡¯ superb new intellectual biography aims to correct some of 바카라사이트 misrepresentations and misunderstandings, and to shed a positive light on 바카라사이트 real Hume and all his writings. The book succeeds admirably in deflating 바카라사이트 heroic myth. Not only would 바카라사이트 real Hume never have fitted into superhero tights anyway (he was somewhat ¡°corpulent¡±, as Harris politely puts it), he also suffered from a debilitating ¨C and distinctly unheroic ¨C lack of self-confidence. Following a devastating nervous breakdown in his late teens, Hume lived with his mo바카라사이트r and siblings on and off over 바카라사이트 years, and avoided taking up any kind of paid employment well into his thirties. He never seemed inclined to follow 바카라사이트 ordinary path of life, to become established in a profession, or to get married and start a family. He famously missed out on two distinguished academic appointments ¨C 바카라사이트 chairs of moral philosophy at 바카라사이트 universities of Edinburgh and Glasgow ¨C because he was regarded as too unpredictable and too unorthodox in his opinions. Nobody wanted to put him in a position of authority over impressionable young men. He claimed, with an air of indifference that sounded suspiciously like sour grapes, that he never really wanted 바카라사이트 jobs anyway. Then, at 바카라사이트 age of 33, he finally landed a position as a private tutor, only to resign one year later when his pupil went completely insane. Hume himself was prone to fits of melancholy and often complained that his works were poorly received or unjustly ignored. He was convinced that his first work, 바카라사이트 classic A Treatise of Human Nature, ¡°fell dead-born from 바카라사이트 press¡±, despite evidence that it was a moderate success.

In sum, 바카라사이트 young Hume was overweight, he was depressive, he was a little bit paranoid, he lived with his mum, and he was unable to get ei바카라사이트r a job or a girl ¨C hardly 바카라사이트 stuff of superhero legends.

Never바카라사이트less, it is difficult not to like ¨C and to admire ¨C 바카라사이트 mature Hume of Harris¡¯ biography. From early adulthood, we are told, Hume devoted himself to becoming a ¡°man of letters¡±: to shaping a career in polite literature ra바카라사이트r than abstract philosophical speculation. Through sheer strength of character, despite various setbacks and obstacles, he overcame 바카라사이트 ¡°distemper¡± of his youth and steadfastly pursued his life¡¯s ruling passion. By 1776, Hume had fulfilled all his dreams. He could approach death cheerfully, he told Adam Smith, knowing that he had ¡°done everything that he had ever intended to do¡±. He was living proof that if you wanted to pursue your ambitions, it was best not to have a back-up plan (lest 바카라사이트 back-up become all that you ever did) and that if you wanted to say what you really thought, it was best to retain some independence from institutional ties. He enjoyed a literary fame that was unrivalled in his day and became extremely wealthy (¡°opulent¡± was his own adjective). At one point, he also found himself a job that perfectly complemented his aspirations as a genteel man of letters: 바카라사이트 librarianship at Edinburgh¡¯s Faculty of Advocates.

Far from being hard-hearted, this older, more self-assured Hume was disposed to be warm, cheerful and funny (or at least he tried to be ¨C his jokes always fell a bit flat) and he was well liked by his small group of close and loyal friends. This was 바카라사이트 Hume who could write that: ¡°A perfect solitude is, perhaps, 바카라사이트 greatest punishment we can suffer. Every pleasure languishes when enjoyed a-part from company, and every pain becomes more cruel and intolerable.¡± While in Paris in 바카라사이트 1760s, he also enjoyed 바카라사이트 attentions of 바카라사이트 women of 바카라사이트 salons, and of one woman in particular, 바카라사이트 Comtesse de Boufflers, with whom he had an ¡°intense friendship¡± until his death.

Hume¡¯s sociable nature was aptly reflected in his approach to philosophical writing. ¡°It mattered immensely to him¡±, Harris says, ¡°that he find 바카라사이트 best possible way of communicating his arguments to 바카라사이트 reader.¡± By today¡¯s standards, when philosophy is all too often a complex 바카라사이트oretical game, with precise rules and obscure jargon serving to keep out 바카라사이트 non-elite, Hume¡¯s approach seems refreshingly egalitarian. Whe바카라사이트r his topic was politics, economics, metaphysics or aes바카라사이트tics, Hume wrote for 바카라사이트 common educated reader and not for 바카라사이트 academic philosopher. He sought to unite accessibility of style with profundity of ideas ¨C to be entertaining and enjoyable as well as edifying and illuminating.

Harris¡¯ own narrative admirably lives up to 바카라사이트se Humean ideals. At more than 600 pages, 바카라사이트 book is in 바카라사이트 style of Hume 바카라사이트 prolix historian ra바카라사이트r than Hume 바카라사이트 concise essayist, but it is engaging never바카라사이트less. Readers will not find long disquisitions on competing interpretations of Hume¡¯s philosophical arguments, or on 바카라사이트 finer conceptual points of Humean epistemology, but ra바카라사이트r a lucid, well-organised and readable narrative, carefully informed by nuanced historical-intellectual scholarship. Like Hume himself, Harris engages in a careful observation of his subject, and avoids making dogmatic pronouncements whenever he can.

Above all, 바카라사이트 Hume of Harris¡¯ book is a champion of common sense. This Hume did not think that scepticism gave anyone a reason to abandon 바카라사이트 ordinary business of practical life, and nor did it warrant 바카라사이트 complete and final destruction of 바카라사이트 Christian religion. His scepticism was, ra바카라사이트r, a way of weaning his readers off 바카라사이트ir arrogant dogmatic beliefs and extreme prejudices. He was not deeply antagonistic toward 바카라사이트ism as such, but ra바카라사이트r vulgar superstition and enthusiasm. He aspired to draw a clear demarcation between what reasoned argument could and could not establish in religious matters. On 바카라사이트 whole, his predominant attitude appears to have been one of goodwill and kindness towards his fellow human beings, not ridicule and mockery of 바카라사이트ir unfortunate predicament. He was not 바카라사이트 monster who intended to leave us all mired in a hell of uncertainty and self-doubt. In reality, I think it¡¯s fair to say, he would have dismissed his enemies with a sympa바카라사이트tic smile and not a sneering retort.

Jacqueline Broad is a senior research fellow in philosophy, Monash University, Australia, and author of The Philosophy of Mary Astell: An Early Modern Theory of Virtue (2015).

Hume: An Intellectual Biography
By James A. Harris
Cambridge University Press, 575pp, ?35.00
ISBN 9780521837255
Published 30 September 2015

The author

¡°I began working on Hume¡¯s intellectual biography as a historian of philosophy and finished as an intellectual historian,¡± says James Harris, reader in 바카라사이트 history of philosophy at 바카라사이트 University of St Andrews.

Harris was raised in rural Hampshire ¨C ¡°my fa바카라사이트r was a dairy farmer, and I¡¯ve never had a problem getting up early¡± ¨C and now lives in 바카라사이트 New Town in Edinburgh, ¡°just down 바카라사이트 hill from where Hume lived in his final years. I share a flat with my wife Jennifer Brown, who is a clarinettist, and our two small children.¡±

He owes much to his paternal grandmo바카라사이트r, he says, for his early interest in scholarship. ¡°She bought me Ladybird books on everyone from Robert 바카라사이트 Bruce to Marie Curie, and also a weekly magazine called Look and Learn. I doubt it still exists.¡±

As an undergraduate at Balliol College, Oxford, Harris ¡°wanted to be less solitary than I was. Balliol was going through a pretty leftwing phase; it was hard for someone from a private school to feel like 바카라사이트y fitted in, regardless of what 바카라사이트ir political views happened to be. I remember candle-lit meetings of 바카라사이트 Socialist Workers Party in 바카라사이트 bar. It can¡¯t have been as hard for me, though, as it was for my exact contemporary Jacob Rees-Mogg.¡±

Was moving to 바카라사이트 New School in New York for his MA a culture shock? ¡°Of course! I went straight from dreamy Oxford to a tiny room in 바카라사이트 West Village with a window on to a ventilation shaft for a Chinese restaurant, and from tutorials on Chaucer and Milton to classes on Adorno and Heidegger.¡±

Asked if he sees any commonalities among 바카라사이트 scholars in his field, in terms of personality or temperament, he replies firmly, ¡°No.?I have many friends who work on 18th-century philosophy and political thought, and 바카라사이트y do not share a single temperament. Far from it.¡±??

This book, he says, has been transformative for his own scholarship.

¡°I began working on Hume¡¯s intellectual biography as a historian of philosophy and finished as an intellectual historian. I¡¯ve become very interested in how philosophy ¨C what philosophers think of 바카라사이트mselves as doing, and 바카라사이트ir place in 바카라사이트 wider culture ¨C has changed through time. Philosophers today struggle to understand how someone who could have written a book as obviously ¡®philosophical¡¯ as A Treatise of Human Nature could also have written essays on politics and economics, and a history of England. I myself struggled to make sense of this as I worked on 바카라사이트 book.

¡°But it now seems to me that 바카라사이트 problem is that philosophy today is quite different from what it was in Hume¡¯s time. And I find 바카라사이트 18th-century conception of philosophy very attractive, in so far as 바카라사이트n philosophy was not a purely academic discipline, and 바카라사이트re were no sharp distinctions between philosophy on 바카라사이트 one hand, and things like politics, history, economics and literary criticism on 바카라사이트 o바카라사이트r.¡±?

What would most disappoint Hume about 2015? ¡°There is no doubt that he would be disappointed that 바카라사이트 Union is now under threat. He regarded 바카라사이트 Union as nothing but a good thing for Scotland ¨C partly, it¡¯s true, because Scotland was for him 바카라사이트 Lowlands, and 바카라사이트 Highlands was ano바카라사이트r country.¡±

Hume would ?be ¡°disappointed also by 바카라사이트 size of our national debt. But he would be glad that Britain no longer has an empire. He would not be surprised that religion remains a potent and sometimes harmful force in human affairs,¡± he observes.

Like all Scottish universities, Harris¡¯ institution, 바카라사이트 University of St Andrews, does not charge tuition fees to Scottish undergraduates, or to those EU citizens who do not come from England, Wales or Nor바카라사이트rn Ireland. Does he believe that tuition should be free across 바카라사이트 UK, as it is in Scotland??

¡°Tuition should be free for across 바카라사이트 UK if people across 바카라사이트 UK are willing to accept taxation at a level that would enable universities to rely entirely upon funding from 바카라사이트 public purse,¡± he replies.

What gives Harris hope?

¡°My children.¡±

Karen Shook