David Hume and the Culture of Scottish Newtonianism

Methodology and Ideology in Enlightenment Inquiry
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-90-04-32731-3
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 259, 224 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 454 g

Reihe: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History

David Hume has a canonical place in the context of moral philosophy, but his insights are less frequently discussed in relation to natural philosophy. David Hume and the Culture of Scottish Newtonianism offers a discussion of Hume’s methodological and ideological commitments in matters of knowledge as reflected in his language and outlook. Tamás Demeter argues that several aspects of Hume’s moral philosophy reflect post-Newtonian tendencies in the aftermath of the Opticks, and show affinities with Newton-inspired Scottish physiology and chemistry. Consequently, when Hume describes his project as an 'anatomy of the mind' he uses a metaphor that expresses his commitment to study human cognitive and affective functioning on analogy with active and organic nature, and not with the Principia’s world of inert matter.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Demeter, Tamás

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: 18. Jahrhundert
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Westliche Philosophie: Aufklärung

Inhaltsverzeichnis

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE UNITY OF SCOTTISH NEWTONIANISM
I. The Conceptual Unity of Scottish Newtonianism
II. The Methodological Unity of Scottish Newtonianism

METHODOLOGICAL AND IDEOLOGICAL CONTEXT
III. Hume’s Copernican Turn
IV. Newton’s Method and Hume’s Science of Man
V. Hume and the Changing Ideology of Natural Inquiry

HUME’S METHOD AND PROJECT
VI. The Experimental Method
VII. A Chemistry of Perceptions
VIII. An Anatomy and Physiology of the Mind

MORAL PHILOSOPHY AND NORMATIVE MORALITY
IX. Three Perspectives on Human Action
X. The Objectivity of Moral Cognition and Philosophy

CONCLUSION

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

Über Autor(innen)

Tamás Demeter, Ph.D. (2010), University of Cambridge, is Research Group Leader at the Institute of Philosophy, RCH, Hungarian Academy of Sciences and teaches at the University of Pécs, Hungary.