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 978-0-19-1959633-1 (Pbk).
There are two versions of this -- a single volume with
lots of critical apparatus, and a two-volume version, where
vol. 1 has the text of the Treatise, and all the
critical apparatus is stuffed off in vol. 2. You only need
the text (and the ISBN above is for that first volume); I
recommend you purchase whatever turns out to be
the less expensive version.
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. (FYI, this is the standard
edition, and citations are normally keyed to its pages.)
- 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 (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:
- 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.)
-
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".
-
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..."
-
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).
Have a great Labor Day -- and for a look into a Humean
mind, why not take Temple Grandin,
Thinking in Pictures, to the beach?
-
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).
-
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).
-
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".
-
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).
- 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).
- 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).
- 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.
- 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).
- 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".
- 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).
HAVE A GREAT FALL BREAK! Take the History of England to the beach.
- 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).
- 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).
- 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".
- 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".
- 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".
- 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).
- 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").
- 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.
- Nov. 12: What Makes a Government Legitimate?
Reading:
"Of the Original Contract" (in Essays).
Optional reading: "Of Passive Obedience" (in Essays).
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
FINAL PAPER OUTLINE DUE NOV. 25TH!
- 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).
Happy Thanksgiving! (Think about your final paper between courses.)
- 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).
- Dec. 5:
The Unnoticed Hume.
No new reading.
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.)