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Required textbooks:

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

Optional textbook:

While you will be required to use this book (one volume of it, your choice), 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.

Additional readings will be made available through the Philosophy Department reserve file (behind the desk in the reception area of the department office), and online.

Reading Assignments:

  1. Aug. 20: 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. 22: Psychological Machinery. 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".

  3. Aug. 27: Associationism and the Problem of Induction. Reading: EHU sec. 3, sec. 4, part 1; T I.iii.5 ("Of the impressions of the senses and memory"), I.iii.7 ("Of the nature of the idea or belief"), and T I.iii.2-4, the first two paras. of I.iii.8; I.iii.14. (And what that means: Book.part.chapter, of the Treatise.) "That Politics May Be Reduced to a Science", in Essays.

    Optional reading: John Stuart Mill, System of Logic, Book III, ch. v ("Of the Law of Universal Causation"), thru sec. 9. H (History of England) I:188f, para. beginning "The Norman army, being much distressed..."

  4. Aug. 29: What Supports Categorization? Reading: T I.iii.11-12; Don Garrett, "Abstract Ideas". (Available in the Philosophy Department; alternatively, use the Marriott catalog to find Don Garrett's book, Hume -- there's an online version -- and this will be subsection 2.4 in ch. 2, pp. 52-60.) Optional reading: EHU secs. 6, 9; Fiell and Fiell, 1000 Chairs (available from Marriott).

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

  6. Sept. 3: What Is It for Something to Be the Same as Itself? 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).

  7. Sept. 5: What Are Material Bodies? Reading: EHU sec. 12, pt. 1. Optional reading: H. H. Price, Hume's Theory of the External World, esp. pp. 20-32, 50-86 (available from Marriott).

  8. Sept. 10: "Compare the Soul... to a Republic or Commonwealth". Reading: T 1.4.6; History of England, V:3-49 (= chs. 45-46). Optional reading: H I:160-227 (this is the Appendix on "Anglo-Saxon Government and Manners" and ch. 4, "William the Conqueror"); John Biro, "Hume on Self-Identity and Memory"; Biro, "Hume's Difficulties with the Self".

  9. Sept. 12: 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); review I.iii.5 ("Of the impressions of the senses and memory"); 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).

  10. Sept. 17: The Mind-Body Problem. Reading: T I.iv.5 ("Of the immateriality of the soul"); "Of the Immortality of the Soul," parts I and III (in Essays -- if you draw on this in a paper, remember our prohibited topics).
    Optional 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).

  11. Sept. 19: Free Will! (with ten proofs of purchase and $5.99 shipping and handling) Reading: EHU sec. 8; Ella Marsh, "Hume and Enthusiasm".
    Optional reading: "Superstition and Enthusiasm" (ch. 10 in Essays); Hilary Bok, "The Problem" (ch. 1 of her Freedom and Responsibility, on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

  12. Sept. 24: Comic-Book Physics and the Case for Determinism. Reading: Jeff Dillon, "Hume's Probabilistic Reasoning and the Primacy Effect". Review EHU sec. 8
    Optional reading: Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, "Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases," in Daniel Kahneman, Paul Slovic and Amos Tversky, eds., Judgment Under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 3-20.

  13. Sept. 26: Anything You Can Think of Is Possible. Reading: Cole Hurley, "Hume and Identity"; Aiden Christesen, "Hume & Collage as a Developmental Necessity". Garrett, "The Separability Principle" (ch. 3 of Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy; on reserve in the Philosophy Department).
    Optional reading: Nozick, Invariances, pp. 120-155 (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

  14. Oct. 1: Conceivability as Possibility Gives You... Quantum Geometry! Reading: T I.ii ("Of the ideas of space and time", except for the final section); I.iii.1 ("Of Knowledge"); I.iv.1.
    Optional reading: Robert Fogelin, "Hume and Berkeley on the Proofs of Infinite Divisibility".

  15. Oct. 3: Is This Skepticism? Reading: Henry Lindsey, "Object Identity"; Frank Adler, "Hume and Belief". T "Introduction",, I.iv.7 ("Conclusion of this book").
    Optional reading: George Lakoff, "Hedges," Journal of Philosophical Logic 2(4), 1973: 458-508 (Appendix III on p. 506 only; on reserve in the Philosophy Department).

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

  17. Oct. 15: Is Reason the Slave of the Passions? Reading: Essays XV-XVIII ("The Epicurean"; "The Stoic"; "The Platonist"; "The Sceptic"); T II.iii.3 ("Of the influencing motives of the will").
    Optional reading: Robert Fogelin, Hume's Skepticism in the Treatise of Human Nature, ch. 9 ("Reason and the Passions"; available from Marriott); Barry Stroud, Hume, pp. 154-170 (available online via the Marriott catalog, and physical copy in Marriott).

  18. Oct. 17: Hume's Law. Reading: Matylda Blaszczak, "Human Causes"; Steven Fernelius, "Revival Sets and the Problem of Particulars in Hume's Theory of Generality". T III.i.1; Enquiries, Appendix I (pp. 285-294 in the Selby-Bigge edition). History, vol. II, pp. 212f, from "There were strong reasons..." through "...the case with the archbishop Stratford".
    Optional reading: W. D. Hudson, "Hume on Is and Ought", Philosophical Quarterly 14(56), July 1964: 246-52 (available through the Marriott catalog, and on JSTOR: https://www-jstor-org.ezproxy.lib.utah.edu/stable/2955466). And 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 in the Philosophy Department). 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" (available in the Philosophy Department).

  19. Oct. 22: Utility and Sympathy. Reading: T II.i.11; II.ii.1-9; EPM sec. V; EPM Appendix I, sec.V (this last is on pp. 293f of the Selby-Bigge-Nidditch edition, and we'll only need the first two paras).
    Optional reading: Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, "Hume and the Bauhaus Theory of Ethics".

  20. Oct. 24: Virtues, Naturally. Reading: Christian Smith, "The Five Aspects of Identity"; T III.ii.1-6; EPM secs. VI-VIII.
    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".

  21. Oct. 29: The Paradox of the Artificial Virtues. Reading: T T II.i.2, 7-12. Austin Morris, "A Problem with Image Term Association".
    Optional reading: Amy Schmitter, "Making an Object of Yourself: On the Intentionality of the Passions in Hume".

  22. Oct. 31: Pride and the Artificial Self. Reading: Carson Moore, "Does Falsification Solve Hume's Problem of Induction?"; Lorenzo Greco, "The Self as Narrative in Hume" (on reserve in the Philosophy Department).
    Optional reading: Karl Popper, "Conjectural Knowledge: My Solution of the Problem of Induction" (available in the Philosophy Department).

  23. Nov. 5: Self-Interest and the Argument Against Egoism. Reading: Ethan Riley, "Tension in Hume's View of the Self". EPM sec. IX, part ii, Appendix II ("Of Self-Love") = pp. 278-84, 295-302 in the Selby-Bigge edition;
    Optional reading: History, V:124-155 ("Appendix to the Reign of James I: Civil government of England during this period -- Ecclesiastical government -- Manners -- Finance -- Navy -- Commerce -- Manufactures -- Colonies -- Learning and arts").

  24. Nov. 7: What Were the Essays About? Reading: Sabrina Martinez, "Hume, Impressions, and Knowledge of Death"; Joseph Schallenberger, "Hume's Unconscious". Hume, "Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences" (in Essays).
    Optional followon reading (for the very ambitious): Donald Frame, trans., The Complete Essays of Montaigne.

  25. Nov. 12: What Makes a Government Legitimate? Reading: "Of the Original Contract" (in Essays).
    Optional reading: "Of Passive Obedience" (in Essays).

  26. Nov. 14: The Debate over Luxury. Reading: Lux Cutler, "Precisely the Problem"; William Norton, "Changing Virtues and Vices with David Hume". History of England, vol. I, 160-185 ("The Anglo-Saxon Government and Manners"); IV: 354-385 ("Appendix III: Government of England -- Revenues -- Commerce -- Military force -- Manners -- Learning").
    Optional followon reading (for the very ambitious): Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

  27. Nov. 19: OK, But Why Should You? Reading: Korsgaard, Sources of Normativity, pp. 51-66 (available via the Marriott catalog); ``Of Simplicity and Refinement in Writing,'' in Essays.
    Optional reading: ``Of Essay-Writing'' in Essays.

  28. Nov. 21: Theory of Aesthetics ... and starting in on the Tragedy of Charles! Reading: Michael Mendenhall, "Hume's 'Problem of Induction' and Scientific Claims". Maddox Stinson, "We Actually Are Using Reason, Jerk". "The Standard of Taste" (in the Essays); T II.i.8 ("Of beauty and deformity"). Start speed reading History of England, chs. 50-54 (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". Further reading: Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando Furioso.

  29. FINAL PAPER OUTLINE DUE NOV. 25TH!

  30. Nov. 26: Tragedy! (and paper writing orientation) Reading: "On Tragedy"; "Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion" (in Essays); History of England, ch.59 (in vol. V).
    Optional reading (the Tragedy of Charles, middle acts): History of England, chs. 55-58 (still in vol. V).
  31. Happy Thanksgiving! (Think about your final paper between courses.)

  32. Dec. 3: Two Styles of History. Reading: "Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations" (in Essays). You can mostly speed-read this, paying attention to the style, but zoom in pp. 448-51.
    Optional reading: "Of the Middle Station in Life" (in Essays).
  33. Dec. 5: The Unnoticed Hume. No new reading.
  34. FINAL PAPERS DUE FRIDAY DEC. 6, IN DEPARTMENT OFFICE

    Final papers are ready to be picked up in the Department office -- ask Connie or K'mwe. (FYI, the office will be closed Dec. 23 to Jan. 2.)