David Hume (1) (1711–1776)

One of the best-known modern philosophers wrote his masterpiece at a young age, it wasn’t well received at the time and to being important to Western philosophy, and so David Hume decided to do something to get his thoughts talked about. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two pieces that Hume wrote from sections of his most famous work to enlarge and make them well known thus putting his name out into the philosophical community.

The two Enquiries are essentially extracts and revisions of sections from his A Treatise of Human Nature, his anonymously published most important work that was not received well and very long. In all honestly, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding was to me were words that signified nothing. Every statement and argument Hume put forward neither interested me nor really was convincing and his section “On Miracles” was nothing more than a circular argument that just wasted my time. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals was not much better, while I understood Hume’s thinking, I just didn’t understand the reason for the entire piece existing and frankly the four Appendixes that were attached where the best part of what Hume wrote. The publishers decided to include A Dialogue in the book, and it was probably the best piece in the entire book as I took it as satire and if not, I don’t care because those 20 pages were better than the previous 326. Frankly I had hoped for Hume to contrast or compliment John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and while I felt Locke was a bit bloated, at least I cared about what he wrote unlike Hume.

Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two of David Hume’s work combined in the same book, I read them and felt like I wasted my time.… (mehr)

David Hume è uno dei miei filosofi preferiti e trovo molto consolante ricorrervi quando il mondo intorno a me impazzisce e dà eccessive attenzioni a chi pensa che i vaccini provochino l’autismo o che le teorie riparative abbiano una qualche efficacia (e siano mai riuscite a riportare una persona LGBTQIA+ sulla “retta via”).

In questo volume, Laterza raccoglie sezioni da Storia naturale delle religioni, da Dialoghi sulla religione naturale e da Ricerca sull’intelletto umano, più il Frammento sul male, La superstizione e l'entusiasmo e parte de I caratteri nazionali.

Quello che adoro di Hume, oltre al suo fornire ottime argomentazioni contro i fanatici, è la sua capacità di farti dubitare delle tue stesse convinzioni e di fartele mettere in discussione (anche se sei d’accordo con lui).

Non importa da dove parti: Hume ti scombussolerà il cervello.… (mehr)

It was good to read this in it's (more or less original) prose, as Hume wrote it. A lot of very perceptive arguments; and the dialogue format serves well to couch Hume's views, forcing you to think for yourself a bit more, rather than just accept what you're reading as wisdom from an authority.

But... commas. The punctuation and write-style are dated and very difficult to read at times. A truly modern rendition of the text risks changing some meaning, but at the benefit of making the ideas so much more clear.

4 stars for the work, but 3 stars for the lack of clarity of reading in the (nearly) original.… (mehr)