Hume and Ancient Philosophy.
This paper examines Hume’s comments on and claims about ancient philosophy. A clear and consistent picture emerges from doing so. While Hume is a lover of ancient literature, he holds ancient philosophy in very low regard, as passage after passage discloses, with one qualification and one important...
| Published in: | British Journal for the History of Philosophy Vol. 20; no. 4; pp. 741 - 773 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
Jul2012
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=77657754&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 77657754 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09608788 5AX jtl: British Journal for the History of Philosophy issn: 09608788 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2012 vid: 20 iid: 4 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 77657754 10.1080/09608788.2012.679779 ppf: 741 ppct: 32 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 187KB tig: atl: Hume and Ancient Philosophy. aug: au: Loptson, Peter affil: University of Guelph su: Hume, David, 1711-1776 Ancient philosophy Skepticism Epicureans (Greek philosophy) Philosophy & science Enlightenment sug: subj: Hume, David, 1711-1776 Ancient philosophy Skepticism Epicureans (Greek philosophy) Philosophy & science Enlightenment keyword: ancient philosophy epicureanism Hume scepticism scientific philosophy ab: This paper examines Hume’s comments on and claims about ancient philosophy. A clear and consistent picture emerges from doing so. While Hume is a lover of ancient literature, he holds ancient philosophy in very low regard, as passage after passage discloses, with one qualification and one important exception. Hume appropriates the mantle of ‘Academic’ sceptic for himself; but in fact his Academic (or ‘mitigated’) scepticism has only minimal affinity with the ancient school of this name, having more in common with early modern sceptical positions. The exception is found in the ‘painterly’ depictions of character and other features of moral life, where Hume holds many of the ancients in very high regard, seeing them as superior to the moderns. The bases of these respective views of Hume’s are explored, with an interpretation which construes Hume’s ‘anatomist’/’painter’ contrast as meant non-ironically. On the anatomist or theoretical side, Hume nonetheless – rightly or wrongly, and contrary to the views of a number of his prominent readers – sees a radical, dramatic break between early modern ‘scientific’ philosophy, and anything which preceded it. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of British Journal for the History of Philosophy is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: British Journal for the History of Philosophy holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2012 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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