Hume: A Guide for the Perplexed

Continuum's Guides for the Perplexed are clear, concise and accessible introductions to thinkers, writers and subjects that students and readers can find especially challenging. Concentrating specifically on what it is that makes the subject difficult to grasp, these books explain and explore key themes and ideas, guiding the reader towards a thorough understanding of demanding material. David Hume is arguably one of the most important philosophers ever to have written in English. His monumental contributions to epistemology and metaphysics, represented in his two landmark works, A Treatise of Human Nature and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, were hugely influential on both sides of the Atlantic. Yet he is also notorious as a puzzling and difficult thinker and students of his work regularly face very particular intellectual challenges.

Angela Coventry teaches philosophy at Portland State University Oregon, USA

Abbreviations	p. x
Acknowledgements	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Life and Works of David Hume	p. 3
Publication Time-Line	p. 11
Intellectual Heritage	p. 14
The Growth of Science	p. 14
Empiricism and Rationalism	p. 15
Main Influences	p. 17
Descartes	p. 18
Malebranche	p. 18
Newton	p. 20
Locke	p. 21
Berkeley	p. 22
Bayle	p. 24
Summary	p. 25
Approach to Philosophy	p. 28
Definition of Philosophy	p. 28
Characterization of the Present State of Philosophy	p. 29
The Science of Human Nature	p. 30
The experimental method	p. 32
Summary	p. 35
Operations of the Mind	p. 37
The Copy Principle	p. 38
Two examples in support of the Copy Principle	p. 40
The case of the missing shade of blue	p. 41
Impressions and ideas further classified	p. 44
The Separability Principle	p. 46
Principles of the Association of Ideas	p. 47
Relations	p. 49
Substance and mode	p. 50
Abstract ideas	p. 53
Summary	p. 56
Space and Time	p. 58
Against the Infinite Divisibility of Space and Time	p. 58
The Origin of our Ideas of Space and Time	p. 61
The Vacuum	p. 63
Three Objections Considered	p. 67
Space, Time and the Copy Principle	p. 72
Cause and Effect	p. 78
The Relation of Cause and Effect	p. 78
Why a Cause Is Always Necessary	p. 82
The Inference from Cause to Effect	p. 84
The reason of animals	p. 88
Belief	p. 89
The causes of belief	p. 92
The influence of belief	p. 94
Probability	p. 94
Rules to Judge Causes and Effects	p. 96
Kant's 'Reply" to Hume	p. 98
Necessary Connection	p. 105
The Idea of Necessary Connection	p. 105
Liberty and Necessity	p. 110
Moral and Religious Implications of Necessity	p. 113
The Imaginary Standard of a Necessary Connection	p. 115
Summary	p. 134
Scepticism	p. 139
Scepticism about Reason	p. 139
The Existence of External Objects	p. 142
Senses	p. 142
Reason	p. 144
Imagination	p. 145
Ancient Philosophy	p. 151
Modern Philosophy	p. 152
The Immaterial Soul	p. 154
Personal Identity	p. 157
Effects of Scepticism on Philosophy	p. 161
Scepticism and the Science of Human Nature	p. 165
Bibliography	p. 169
Index	p. 174
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Hume: A Guide for the Perplexed

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Table of Contents

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