Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

May be repeated for credit. Writing.

COURSE DETAILS:

Selected Topics: Hume’s System of Ethics  

[Note: this course is to be taught concurrently with PHIL 854.]

David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) is widely thought to be the most significant English-language text in the philosophical canon. He embraces there a kind of naturalism by which he investigates the mind using the same experimental methods that had had such success in the science of nature. He thus eschews appeals to the divine and instead grounds all of our fundamental attitudes and beliefs in a human nature that is continuous with animal nature. He covers a wide swath of topics in the Treatise: epistemology and metaphysics in its first Book; the theory of emotions and motivation in its second; and morality and politics in the third. Hume intends to present a unified philosophy, which he says “will acquire new force as it advances,” even if “[m]orality is a subject that interests us above all others” (T 3.1.1.1).

This seminar will be an exploration of Hume’s “system of ethics” (T 3.3.4.1, 3.3.6.1) in the Treatise. In particular, we will focus on Book 2’s account of the passions and its link to Book 3’s treatment of morals, though we will connect both to his rejection of a self-conscious subject in his discussion of personal identity in Book 1 (T 1.4.6).

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

PHIL 451W may be applied towards the Writing Requirement (and the upper division Writing Requirement for Philosophy Majors). This course may be repeated for credit if the topic is different.

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING: