Reading & the Good Life
Join the conversation! Every Friday at Noon EST, Perennial Meditations readers are welcome to gather for Reading & the Good Life (Register here), a space for connection, contemplation, and conversations on the art of living!
This week begins our exploration into the wisdom of the eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume. This month's book is The Great Guide: What David Hume Can Teach Us Being Human and Living Well by Julian Baggini (a previous podcast guest).
Who is David Hume?
Generally regarded as one of the most important philosophers to write in English, David Hume (1711–1776) was also well known in his own time as a historian and essayist. A master stylist in any genre, his major philosophical works—A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–1740), the Enquiries concerning Human Understanding (1748), and Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), as well as his posthumously published Dialogues concerning Natural Religion (1779)—remain widely and deeply influential. …
As the title of the Treatise proclaims, Hume’s subject is human nature. He summarizes his project in its subtitle: “An attempt to introduce the experimental method into moral subjects.” In his day, “moral” meant anything concerned with human nature, not just ethics, as he makes clear at the beginning of the first Enquiry, where he defines “moral philosophy” as “the science of human nature.” Hume aims to bring the scientific method to bear on the study of human nature. …
Learn more: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/
Here’s a short video from Then & Now on David Hume:
Selected Passages
The following passages from The Great Guide by Julian Baggini will help guide our conversation at the next Reading & the Good Life (Register here).
