Abstract
HUME’S Treatise of Human Nature, as its readers soon discover, is a difficult and often puzzling work. The ardour of mind and variability of mood in which it was composed, its loose and careless terminology, and other minor defects very excusable in a first and youthful work, also even its sheer bulk, account for many of the reader’s difficulties. But the root-causes lie deeper, in the arrangement of the work as a whole. It opens with an exposition of what, in the main, is Hutcheson’s version of Locke’s ‘ theory of ideas ’. Hume builds it into his system, putting it to new uses, but otherwise leaving it — so at least a first reading of the opening sections would appear to suggest — in all essentials unchanged. As we shall find, our attitude towards the Treatise must largely be determined by the answer we give to this initial question: How does Hume’s treatment of the ‘ doctrine of ideas ’ in these opening sections of the Treatise (Sections 1 to 6) stand in relation to the newer, more distinctive doctrines dealt with throughout the rest of Book I and in Books II and III ?
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Treatise, Introduction (xxi n.). The dates of first publication of their works may be noted. Locke, An Essay concerning Human Understanding, 1690. Shaftesbury, An Inquiry concerning Virtue, or Merit, 1699; Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times, 1711. Mandeville, Grumbling Hive, or Knaves turrid Honest, 1705; republished with additions in 1714, and with further additions in 1723, under the title, The Fable of the Bees, or Private Vices, Public Benefits. Hutcheson, An Lnquiry into the Original of our Ldeas of Beauty and Virtue; In two Treatises. I. Concerning Beauty, Order, Harmony. II. Concerning Moral Good and Evil, 1725 ; An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections, with Lllustrations upon the Moral Sense, 1728. Butler, Sermons, 1726; Dissertation upon Virtue (appended to the Analogy), 1736. The order of names, as given by Hume, it will be observed, is not one of importance, but merely chronological.
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© 1941 Norman Kemp Smith
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Smith, N.K. (1941). Introductory: The Distinctive Principles and Ethical Origins of Hume’s Philosophy. In: The Philosophy of David Hume. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511170_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230511170_1
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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