From Character to Nature: Pope' s "Ruling Passion" and Hume' s "Predominant Inclination".

This paper discusses the theory of passions of Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and David Hume (1711-1776). It focusses on two phrases: "ruling passion" by Pope and "predominant inclination" by Hume. This study attempts to demonstrate that Hume used his term with a similar meaning to that of Pope. The imp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Anachronist Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 402 - 417
Main Author:	TAKÁCS, DÁNIEL
Format:	Article
Published:	Anachronist 2018
Subjects:	Pope, Alexander, 1688-1744 Hume, David, 1711-1776 Poets Emotions Philosophy Theory of knowledge
Online Access:	View this record in EBSCOhost

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Summary:	This paper discusses the theory of passions of Alexander Pope (1688-1744) and David Hume (1711-1776). It focusses on two phrases: "ruling passion" by Pope and "predominant inclination" by Hume. This study attempts to demonstrate that Hume used his term with a similar meaning to that of Pope. The importance of the passions in the conduct of human life, according to these authors, involves a sceptical attitude towards the capabilities of reason. This paper attempts to show the manifestations of this attitude in Pope' s satires on human characters and in the characterisation of a false philosopher and philosophy by Hume.