Hume's Skeptical Crisis: A Textual Study

by Robert J. Fogelin

Overview

Hume's Skeptical Crisis is a textual study of the shifts in perspective that unfold as Hume attempts to produce a complete science of human nature. In the process, Hume's standpoint shifts from buoyant optimism to profound skeptical melancholy and finally comes to rest at a stable form of mitigated skepticism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199889037
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/03/2009
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	377 KB

About the Author

Robert J. Fogelin if Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Dartmouth College.

Table of Contents

PrefaceTexts and CitationsIntroduction. The Interpretive ProblemChapter 1. Of Knowledge and Probability: A Quick Tour of Part 3, Book 1Section 1. Of knowledgeSection 2. Of probability; and of the idea of cause and effectSection 3. Why a cause is always necessary? Section 4. Of the component parts of our reasonings concerning causes and EffectsSection 5. Of the impressions of the senses and memorySection 6. Of the inference from the impression to the ideaSection 7. Of the nature of the idea, or beliefSection 8. Of the causes of beliefSection 9. Of the effects of other relations, and other habitsSection 10. Of the influence of beliefSection 11. Of the probability of chancesSection 12. Of the probability of causesSection 13. Of unphilosophical probabilitySection 14. Of the idea of necessary connexionSection 15. Rules by which to judge of causes and effectsSection 16. Of the reason of animalsChapter 2. Hume on Unphilosophical ProbabilitiesUnphilosophical as opposed to philosophical probabilitiesSources of unphilosophical probabilitiesThe effect of the remoteness of the eventThe effect of the remoteness of the observationReiterative diminutionPrejudice based on general rulesConflicts within the imagination and skepticismChapter 3. Hume's Skepticism with Regard to ReasonThe turn to skepticismThe basic argumentReducing knowledge to probabilityThe regression argumentThe principle of reiterative diminutionHume's response to his skepticalå argumentPeritropeChapter 4. Of Skepticism with Regard to the SensesHume's turnabout with regard to the sensesThe organization of section 2The causes of our belief in the existence of bodiesThe senses not the source of this beliefReason not the source of this beliefThe operations of the imagination in forming this beliefHume's informal statement of his positionHume's systematic statement of his positionThe principle of identityGap fillingThe idea of continued existenceThe belief in continued existenceThe philosopher's double-existence theory of perceptionThe Pyrrhonian momentA concluding noteChapter 5. Of the Ancient and Modern PhilosophyReasons for examining ancient and modern philosophical systemsOf the ancient philosophy (section 3)The false belief in the continued identity of changing objectsThe fiction of underlying substance, or original first matterThe false belief in the simplicity of objectsThe fiction of a unifying substanceThe incomprehensibility of the peripatetic systemSkeptical implicationsOf the modern philosophy (section 4)Against the distinction between primary and secondary qualitiesAnother Pyrrhonian momentChapter 6. The Soul and the SelfOf the immateriality of the soul (section 5)Setting the dialectical stageThe soul as substanceThe problem of local conjunctionSoul-body interactionOn proofs of immortalityOf personal identity (section 6)Basic criticismsAccount of the fiction of personal identityDisputes about identity as merely verbalThe reservations in the appendixHume's picture of the mindHume's declaration of failureChapter 7. The Conclusion of Book 1A gloomy summation of skeptical resultsWhat is to be done? Being a philosopher on skeptical principlesChapter 8. Two Openings and Two ClosingsThe Treatise and the Enquiry on skepticismThe opening of the TreatiseThe opening of the EnquiryThe response to skepticism in the EnquiryThe science of human nature in the EnquiryThe role of skeptical arguments in the EnquirySkepticism concerning the sensesSkepticism concerning reasonSkepticism concerning moral reasoningPyrrhonism and mitigated skepticism