Required textbooks:

You will have to have paper copies of these books, which you will need to bring to class.

• David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature, ed. D. Norton and M. Norton (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001); ISBN 0-19-875172-9 (Pbk).

  Alternatively, you may purchase the Treatise as edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge and P. H. Nidditch (second edition only; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978); ISBN 0-19-824588-2 (Pbk). You can find this quite inexpensively on Amazon.

• David Hume, Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals, 3rd ed., eds. L. A. Selby-Bigge and P. H. Nidditch (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975); ISBN 019824536X (Pbk).

  Once again, this can be found very inexpensively on Amazon. If you can't get a cheap enough copy, it's fine to change this out with both of the following: David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: with Hume's Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature and A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh, 2nd ed., ed. Eric Steinberg (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1993); ISBN 0872202291 (Pbk.), together with David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (Indianapolis: Hackett, 1983); ISBN 0915145456.

• David Hume, Essays Moral, Political and Literary, revised edition, ed. Eugene Miller (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2014); ISBN 0-86597-056-4 (Pbk.).

Optional textbook:

While you will be required to use this book, you don't have to have a paper copy; and you won't need to bring it to class. Despite its size, this is very reasonably priced, and you can decide whether to buy it based on your preferences for reading on-screen vs. on paper.

• David Hume, History of England (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2014); ISBN 0865970203 (Pbk., 6 vols).

  (And here's the online version.)

Reading Assignments:

1. Aug. 22: Introduction. Optional prereading: David Hume, "My Own Life" (in Essays, pp.xxxi-xli); T "Introduction," SB xiii-xix/NN 3-6 (here's what that means: T for Hume, Treatise of Human Nature, and because we have two editions, the first page range is for the Selby-Bigge edition, and the second is for the Norton and Norton edition); EHU (Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding) sec. 1.
   (Optional reading really is optional. These are introductory overviews of the books, in case you want more of an idea of what they're going to be about, and also a very short bio.)

2. Aug. 24: Machinery: The Theory of Ideas. Reading: T I.i (= Book I, Part I) = pp. 1-25/7-22; EHU sec. 2.
   Optional reading: Robert Fogelin, "Hume and the Missing Shade of Blue". And if you're interested in what it looks like when people think about the impressions/ideas distinction nowadays: Steven Gross, "Is There an Empirical Case for Semantic Perception?", Inquiry (new article; citation info not yet assigned), or Martin Rolfs et al., "Visual Adaptation of the Perception of Causality," Current Biology 23 (2013): 250-54.

3. Aug. 26: Associationism and Abstract Ideas. Reading: EHU sec. 3; T I.iii.5 ("Of the impressions of the senses and memory"), I.iii.7 ("Of the nature of the idea or belief"), and the first two paras. of I.iii.8.

   (And what that means: Book.part.chapter, of the Treatise.)
   Optional reading: If you want to get a sense of what British Empiricist psychology looks like when it's implemented, check out Paul Thagard, "Explanatory coherence," Behavioral and Brain Sciences 12(3), Sept 1989: 435-467 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department); or alternatively, Paul Thagard, Conceptual Revolutions, ch. 4; and if you want to get an actual feel for it, check out one or another version of ECHO, at http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/, under the "Software" heading.

   Don Garrett, "Abstract Ideas" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department)

4. Aug. 29: The Problem of Induction. Reading: T I.iii.2-4, 6, 8; EHU secs. 4-5.

   Optional reading: H (History of England) I:188f, para. beginning "The Norman army, being much distressed..."

5. Aug. 31: The Idea of Necessity. T I.iii.14; EHU sec 7; "That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science" in Essays; H I:48, para. beginning "It was not long ere Egbert..."

   Optional reading: David Landy, "Hume's Theory of Mental Representation" (also available from Hume Studies); Rohrbaugh, "Artworks as Historical Individuals".

6. Sept. 2: Induction, Necessity and the Problem of Abstract Ideas. Reading: T I.iii.11-12.
   Optional reading: EHU secs. 6, 9; Fiell and Fiell, 1000 Chairs (available from Marriott).

Have a great Labor Day -- and for a look into a Humean mind, why not take Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures, to the beach?

7. Sept. 7: Your Completely Incoherent Idea of Identity. Reading: T I.iv.2 ("Of scepticism with regard to the senses").
   Optional reading: Donald Baxter, "Identity" (in Hume's Difficulty, ch. 4; on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

8. Sept. 9: Your Completely Incoherent Idea of the External World. Reading: EHU sec. 12, pt. 1.
   Optional reading: Cora Diamond, "Riddles and Anselm's Riddle" (a step towards undercutting the reason/imagination distinction); H. H. Price, Hume's Theory of the External World, esp. pp. 20-32, 50-86 (available from Marriott).

9. Sept. 12: Universals and Identity: How to Turn an Idea into a Paper. Reading: T I.iv.6 ("Of personal identity").
   Optional reading: Retroactive TBA!
10. Sept. 14: Bundle Selves. Reading: T 1.4.6-7.
    Optional reading: John Biro, "Hume on Self-Identity and Memory"; Biro, "Hume's Difficulties with the Self". H V:3-49 (chs. 45-46, in case you want a glimpse of what Hume's thinking when he talks about a "commonwealth").

11. Sept. 16: Uh-oh: Hume's Labyrinth. Reading: Treatise, Appendix, starting at "I had entertain'd some hopes..." to the end (in the Selby-Bigge edition, the section begins on p. 633; in NN, on p. 398); Don Garrett, "Hume's Self-Doubts about Personal Identity," Philosophical Review 90 (1981): 337-358 = http://www.jstor.org/stable/2184977.
    Optional reading: John Stuart Mill, An Examination of the Philosophy of Sir William Hamilton, ch. 12 ("The Psychological Theory of the Belief in Matter, How Far Applicable to Mind," esp. pp. 193-95).

12. Sept. 19: The Mind-Body Problem. Reading: Review T I.iv.5 ("Of the immateriality of the soul").
    Optional reading: "Of the Immortality of the Soul," parts I and III (in Essays -- if you draw on this in a paper, remember our prohibited topics). Followon reading (not for the faint of heart -- this is a tome): Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment (in case you want to know what the cultural context of those charges of "Spinozism" was).

13. Sept. 21: Free Will! (with ten proofs of purchase and $5.99 shipping and handling) Reading: EHU sec. 8.
    Optional reading: Hilary Bok, "The Problem" (ch. 1 of her Freedom and Responsibility, on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

14. Sept. 23: How Predictable Are We (and Should We Want to Be)? Reading: T II.iii.1-2 ("Of liberty and necessity" and "The same subject continu'd").
    Optional reading: Hume, History, vol. I, pp. 160-185 ("The Anglo-Saxon Government and Manners").

FIRST PAPERS DUE SEPT 23

15. Sept. 26: Determinism -- and Physics By Pixar. Reading: Review T I.iv.2, from para. 18 ("After a little examination...") through para. 22 ("...no farther than our senses"), at SB 194-198 = NN 130-132.
    Optional reading: H (in vol.V) ch. 46 (the "Gunpowder Conspiracy").

16. Sept. 28: Hume's Huge Realization -- and, Quantum Geometry! Reading: T I.ii.1-5 ("Of the ideas of space and time", except for the final section); I.iii.1 ("Of Knowledge").
    Optional reading: Robert Fogelin, "Hume and Berkeley on the Proofs of Infinite Divisibility"; George Lakoff, "Hedges," Journal of Philosophical Logic 2(4), 1973: 458-508 (Appendix III on p. 506 only; on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

17. Sept. 30: Is Mathematical Knowledge Certain? Reading: T I.iv.1, 1st 8 paras. (up to "...and reflections to destroy").
    Optional reading: Michael Rabin, "A Probabilistic Algorithm for Testing Primality," Journal of Number Theory 12(1), 1980: 128-138 (available through the Marriott catalog); "Probabilistic Algorithms," in J. Traub, ed., Algorithms and Complexity (New York: Academic Press, 1976): 21-40 (available shortly).

18. Oct. 3: Skepticism about Deductive Inference; Why Is Imagination a Guide to Possibility? Reading: EHU sec. 12, pt. ii, up to "...some of the paradoxical conclusions of geometry of the science of quantity" (SB pp. 155-158); handout, available Fri. 9/30; Garrett, "The Separability Principle" (ch. 3 of Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy; available online via the Marriott catalog).

    Meantime, let's get some of the History on our plates: start reading History of England, vol. II; aim to get through the first ch., i.e., the reign of Henry III; pay special attention to the very first para., up through "...so mean a prince as Henry"; to the "character" of the king (starting on p. 64), and to Hume's description of "the manners of the times" (70).
    Optional reading: Nozick, Invariances, pp. 120-155; Fodor, Hume Variations, pp. 33-40 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

19. Oct. 5: The Five Stages of Skepticism: Denial, Confusion... Reading: T I.ii.6 ("Of the idea of existence, and of external existence"); T "Introduction", I.iv.7 ("Conclusion of this book"); review I.iv.1, Appendix; EHU sec 12; T I.iii.16 ("Of the reason of animals").

    
    Optional reading: Lewis Carroll, "What the Tortoise said to Achilles".

20. Oct. 7: Further Stages of Skepticism: Contentlessness, Acceptance... of What? Reading: "The Sceptic".

    
    Optional followon reading: Martha Nussbaum, "Skeptic Purgatives," in The Therapy of Desire; Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained.

HAVE A GREAT FALL BREAK! Take the History of England to the beach.

21. Oct. 17: Is Reason the Slave of the Passions? Reading: T II.iii.3 ("Of the influencing motives of the will").

    
    Optional reading: Karl Schafer, "Practical Reasoning and Practical Reasons in Hume," Hume Studies 34(2), Nov. 2008: 189-208. (Journal available through Marriott.) David Phillips, "Hume on Practical Reason: Normativity and Psychology in Treatise 2.3.3," Hume Studies 31(2), Nov 2005: 299-316.

22. Oct. 19: Hume's Law. Reading: T III.i.1.

    
    Optional reading: In case you want more of a sense of who the targets of Hume's arguments were: Rawls, "The Critique of Rational Intuitionism," in Lectures on the History of Moral Philosophy (available shortly). And a model response, by Cavell: The Claim of Reason, pp. 318f, from "'You ought to...' is, I will say" through "...your welfare is greater".

23. Oct. 21: Moral Beauty. Reading: Enquiries, Appendix I (pp. 285-294 in the Selby-Bigge edition).

    
    Optional reading: Alison Gopnik, "Could Hume Have Known about Buddhism?", Hume Studies 35 (2009): 5-28 (available through Marriott); Sarah Buss, "What Practical Reasoning Must Be If We Act for Our Own Reasons," Austr. J. Phil. 77 (1999): 399-421.

24. Oct. 24: The Precedence of the Factual and Moral Reasons. Reading: T III.ii.1-6.

    
    Optional reading: Rachel Cohon, Hume’s Morality, ch. 6 ("The Difficulty with the Virtue of Honesty"; available through the Marriott catalog).

25. Oct. 26: Humean Intentional Action. Reading: EPM sec. III.

    
    Optional reading: Rachel Cohon, Hume’s Morality, chs. 1-3 (available through the Marriott catalog). Further reading: Christine Korsgaard, "The Normativity of Instrumental Reason" (available via the Marriott catalog; look up her book, The Constitution of Agency).

26. Oct. 28: Justice, Promises and the Paradox of Artificial Virtues. No new reading. (If you've looked at T III.ii.7-10. keep "allegiance" in mind as another example of an artificial virtue; we'll do another full-scale pass over the topic of governments in a little over a week.)

    
    Optional reading: EPM sec IV.

27. Oct. 31: Hume vs. Egoism. Reading: EPM secs. II, V, IX; EPM Appendix 2 ("Of Self-Love").

    
    Optional reading: Want to know why I recommend you write your way around the words "objective" and "subjective"? Take a look at Heather Douglas, "The Irreducible Complexity of Objectivity".

28. Nov. 2: Sympathy and Utility. Reading: T II.i.11; II.ii.1-9.

    
    Optional reading: Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, "Hume and the Bauhaus Theory of Ethics". Want to know how "utility" came to mean what it does today? Take a look at Robert Cooter and Peter Rappoport, "Were the Ordinalists Wrong About Welfare Economics?", Journal of Economic Literature 22 (June, 1984): 507-530.

29. Nov. 4: Pride and Its Objects. Reading: T II.i.2, 7-12.

    
    Optional reading: T II.i.1, 3-6, 12; Donald Davidson, "Hume's cognitive theory of pride"; Neil McArthur, "Laws Not Men: Hume's Distinction between Barbarous and Civilized Government," Hume Studies 31(1), April 2005: 123-144; Ryu Susato, "Hume's Nuanced Defense of Luxury," Hume Studies 32(1), April 2006: 167-186.

30. Nov. 7: The Self, After All? Reading: "Of Impudence and Modesty" (in Essays, at pp. 552-556).

    
    Optional reading: Amy Schmitter, "Making an Object of Yourself: On the Intentionality of the Passions in Hume"; Lorenzo Greco, "The Self as Narrative in Hume" (available shortly).

31. Nov. 9: What Governments Are Really For. Reading: T III.ii.7-10; "Of the Original Contract" (in Essays -- pay special attention to the para. bridging pp. 480-81); History of England II:525, para. starting "In each of the successive alterations..."

    
    Optional reading: Knud Haakonssen, "The Structure of Hume's Political Theory" (available shortly); "Of Passive Obedience" (in Essays); History of England, in vol. I, chs. 1-3 plus Appendix I ("Anglo-Saxon Government and Manners").

32. Nov. 10: COVID-INDUCED CHANGE OF PLAN Due to a covid exposure, we have to move the originally planned content for this session to later in the term. It's very last minute, but if you have time, speed read ch. 49 of the History, along with the "Appendix to the Reign of James I" (both in vol. V); you can think of this stretch as the Prelude to the Tragedy of King Charles, which we'll start in on next.

33. Nov. 14: Normativity as Reflexivity -- and an Argument Against Aesthetic Theory. Reading: "Of Simplicity and Refinement in Writing," "Of Essay-Writing," "Eloquence" (in Essays). (in Essays); History of England, V:149f (from "On the origin of letters among the Greeks..." to "...among that elegant people").

    
    Optional reading: "Of Refinement in the Arts" (in Essays); Harris, Hume: An Intellectual Biography, pp. 308-25; Christine Korsgaard, Sources of Normativity, pp. 51-66 (available via the Marriott catalog).

34. Nov. 16: Why Did Hume Change the Way He Wrote?... and starting in on the Tragedy of Charles! Reading: T I.iv.3-4 ("Of the antient philosophy," "Of the modern philosophy"); EHU sec. XII. Speed read History of England, chs. 50-54 (in vol. V).

    
    Optional reading: Fogelin, Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise, ch. 7 ("Hume's Natural History of Philosophy").

35. Nov. 18: Theory of Aesthetics. Reading: "The Standard of Taste" (in the Essays); T II.i.8 ("Of beauty and deformity").

    
    Optional reading (the Tragedy of Charles, middle acts): History of England, chs. 55-58 (still in vol. V). Further reading: Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso.

36. Nov. 21: The Paradox of Tragedy. Reading: "On Tragedy"; "Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion" (in Essays); History of England, ch.59 (in vol. V).

    
    Optional reading (in case you want to poke around in Hume's aesthetics): Jerrold Levinson, "Hume's Standard of Taste: The Real Problem"; Jeffrey Wieand, "Hume's Two Standards of Taste"; James Shelley, "Rule and Verdict"; Jeffrey Wieand, "Hume's Real Problem"; James Shelley, "Hume and the Nature of Taste".

37. Nov. 23: Hume's Theory of Climate Change... and History as Tragedy. Reading: "Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations" (in Essays). History of England, vol. II, pp. 518-525; review "On Tragedy".

    
    Optional followon reading: Lynn White, Medieval Technology and Social Change.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

38. Nov. 28: How Is Reason the Slave of the Passions? -- and the Tragedy of Charles (last act). Reading: "The Epicurean," "The Stoic," "The Platonist" (in Essays).

    
    Optional reading: Review "The Sceptic". Followon reading: Martha Nussbaum, The Therapy of Desire; "The Stoics on the Extirpation of the Passions".

39. Nov. 30: Telling Tories and Whigs They're Both Right... Reading: If you haven't already read it, History of England, ch.59 (in vol. V); "Of Some Remarkable Customs" (in Essays).

    
    Optional reading: "Of Passive Obedience" (in Essays); History of England, vol. I, ch. 8; vol. III, ch. 29.

40. Dec. 2: Why Would Hume Have Written a Political Utopia? Reading: "Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth" (in Essays).

    
    Optional reading: Charlie Huenemann, "David Hume and Disease of the Learned."

41. Dec. 5: Why Didn't Hume Drop the Theory of Ideas? Reading: Robert Paul Wolff, "Hume's Theory of Mental Activity".

    
    Optional reading: Review EHU sec. 2.

42. Dec. 7: Hume's Unnoticed Insight. No new reading.

    
    Followon reading: Matthew Mosdell, "When to Think Like an Epistemicist".