Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4)
- Language:
- English
- Status:
- Complete work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~140,000 words · 652 passages
Cite this work
- APADavid Hume. (n.d.). Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/david-hume/philosophical-works-v-1-of-4
- MLADavid Hume. "Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4)." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/david-hume/philosophical-works-v-1-of-4.
- ChicagoDavid Hume. Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4). SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/david-hume/philosophical-works-v-1-of-4.
What it is about
The first of the four volumes of Hume's philosophical works in the Green and Grose edition: the beginning of the 'Treatise of Human Nature'.
Context and history
The Green and Grose edition of 1874-75, in four volumes, of which the catalogue holds the first and second. These two contain the 'Treatise of Human Nature', which Hume published at twenty-eight and which, in his own words, 'fell dead-born from the press'. Everything is here: the thesis that all ideas come from impressions; the analysis of causation — we observe no necessary connection, only a constant conjunction which habit teaches us to expect; the attack on the notion of the self as a substance; and the distinction between is and ought, which has organised two centuries of moral argument. Volumes III and IV contain the essays and the 'Enquiries', the later and more readable restatement of the same, and are not in the catalogue.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
The Philosophical Writings of Mr Hume are here for the first time collected in a uniform edition. The Essays are reprinted from the Edition of 1777, in two octavo volumes, corrected by the Author for the press, a short time before his death, and which he desired might be regarded as containing his philosophical principles. The text of that Edition has been faithfully adhered to in the present; but as it has been thought an interesting object of curiosity, to trace the successive variations of sentiment and taste in a mind like that of Hume, and to mark the gradual and most observable increase of caution in his expression of those sentiments, it has been the care of the present Editor to compare the former Editions, of which a List is here subjoined, and where any alterations were discovered, not merely verbal, but illustrative of the philosophical opinions of the author, to add these as Notes to the passages where they occur. The Essays contained in the early Editions, but which were omitted in that of 1777, will be found at the end of the last volume of the present Collection of his Works, together with the Two Essays, on Suicide, and the Immortality of the Soul. In addition to the Author's Life, written by himself, the Account of the Controversy with M. Rousseau has also been prefixed. It was originally printed in French, and shortly afterwards in English, in the year 1766. The English translation was superintended by Mr Hume; and as it relates to an extraordinary occurrence in the Lives of these eminent philosophers, has been thought a suitable appendage to the short Memoir of himself. EDINBURGH, JUNE