An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
contributor: Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
creator: Hume, David
date: 0000-00-00
extent: 311387
format: text/plain
language: en
publisher: Eris Etext Project
rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
source: 1
subject: nature
subject: experience
subject: mind
subject: cause
subject: effect
subject: objects
subject: allowed
subject: valuable
subject: fitted
subject: please
subject: imagination
subject: hume
subject: david
subject: enquiry
subject: concerning
subject: human
subject: understanding
subject: western
subject: philosophy
type: text
local mirror: hume-enquiry-65.txt
concordance: http://infomotions.com/alex/cgi-bin/concordance.pl
plain html: hume-enquiry-65.htm
sort title: Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An
full text: 1748 AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING by David Hume Sect. I. Of the different Species of Philosophy 1. Moral philosophy, or the science of human nature, may be treated after two different manners; each of which has its peculiar merit, and may contribute to the entertainment, instruction, and reformation of mankind. The one considers man chiefly as born for action; and as influenced in his measures by taste and sentiment; pursuing one object, and avoiding another, according to the value which these objects seem to possess, and according to the light in which they present themselves. As virtue, of all objects, is allowed to be the most valuable, this species of philosophers paint her in the most amiable colours; borrowing all helps from poetry and eloquence, and treating their subject in an easy and obvious manner, and such as is best fitted to please the imagination, and engage the affections. They select the most striking observations and instances from common life; place opposite characters in a proper contrast; and alluring us into the paths of virtue by the views of glory and happiness, direct our steps in these paths by the soundest precepts and most illustrious examples. They make us feel the difference between vice and virtue; they excite and regulate our sentiments; and so they can but bend our hearts to the love of probity and true honour, they think, that they have fully attained the end of all their labours. 2. The other species of philosophers considers man in the light of a reasonable rather than an active being, and endeavours to form his understanding more than cultivate his manners. They regard human nature as a subject of speculation; and with a narrow scrutiny examine it, in order to find those principles, which regulate our understanding, excite our sentiments, and make us approve or blame any particular object, action, or behaviour. They think it a reproach to all literature, that philosophy should not yet have fixed, beyond controversy, …