David Hume on Politics, Morality, and Religion

About this event

In October, we studied Hume’s theory of human understanding and knowledge. There, Hume finds that all our knowledge of matters of fact beyond the barest immediate experience depends on our knowledge of causal connections between types of events. Our vivid belief in the existence of causal connections derives from our repeated experience of the conjunction of certain events. Reason, by itself, cannot determine that an unsupported steel rod will fall or that any future events will conform to our previous experiences. Therefore, our knowledge of the world and of human nature is founded not on reason but on ineradicable animal instinct. If we stop here, there is a danger that Hume will seem to be, despite his protestations, a total skeptic. This would be a mistake. For November, we will study how Hume claims, on the basis of his science of human cognition, to construct a science of morality and politics, even as he continues to attack the two traditional bases of moral and political thought: religion and reason. November’s required readings are Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, his Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, and three political essays: “That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science,” “Of the Original Contract,” and “Of the First Principles of Government.” The Dialogues develop a line of skeptical attack against the possibility of rational knowledge of matters of religion. In particular, Hume attacks the design argument for knowledge of God. Already facing charges of atheism during his lifetime, Hume required that the Dialogues be published posthumously. The Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, a reworking of the ideas presented in the third book of Hume’s Treatise, contains Hume’s basic moral theory. Hume attempts to found our knowledge of morality on the observable regularities of human psychology and not on either religion or the laws of reason. The three essays in our selection are taken from Hume’s Essays Moral, Political, and Literary. Our selection shows how the science of politics may be founded on regularities of human nature and on justice, understood as an artificial virtue. “Of the Original Contract” contains an attack on Locke’s contract theory. In total, our reading should come out to around 250 pages. Required Readings: • Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (print (https://www.amazon.com/Dialogues-Concerning-Natural-Religion-Classics/dp/0872204022), digital (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/4583/4583-h/4583-h.htm)) • Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (print (https://www.amazon.com/Enquiry-Concerning-Principles-Hackett-Classics/dp/0915145456), digital (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4320/pg4320-images.html)) • Selection from Essays Moral, Political, and Literary (print (https://www.amazon.com/Essays-Political-Literary-David-Hume/dp/0865970564/ref=sr_1_1?sr=8-1), digital (https://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/hume-essays-moral-political-literary-lf-ed)) Supplementary Readings • SEP article “Hume’s Moral Philosophy (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-moral/)” • SEP article “Hume on Religion (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume-religion/)” • James Boswell’s “An Account of my last interview with David Hume, Esq (https://digital.nls.uk/scotlandspages/timeline/17762.html).”