Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Philosophy of David Hume

To one and all:

Just in case anyone is interested, there will be created soon a directed readings course on the philosophy of David Hume for this Winter term. Professor Stack and I will be meeting Mondays and Wednesdays from 12pm - 1:30pm in a location yet to be determined, and all are welcome!

We will be looking at two aspects of Hume's philosophy: his metaphysics and epistemology. In his metaphysics we will be asking, "what is his world view?", "what, according to him, is the nature of reality and the nature of the external world?", "what are his views on causality, i.e. cause and effect?", "what are his views on personal identity?", as well as "what are his views on space and time?". In his epistemology we will be asking "is Hume a skeptic?", and examining what grounds there are for thinking that he is or is not a skeptic.

If you're still interested, take a look at Hume's "A Treatise of Human Nature" Book I Part III. This will be our preliminary reading. To anyone interested in Hume, Empiricism, or Skepticism, you are most welcome!