Selected Essays

by Hume, David; Copley, Stephen; Edgar, Andrew

• ISBN13: 9780192836212
• ISBN10: 0192836218
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-11-19
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

In his writings, David Hume set out to bridge the gap between the learned world of the academy and the marketplace of polite society. This collection, drawing largely on his Essays Mortal, Political, and Literary (1776 edition), comprehensively shows how far he succeeded. As seen in these selections, Hume embraces a staggering range of social, cultural, political, demographic, and historical concerns, charting the state of civil society, manners, morals, and taste, and the development of political economy in the mid-eighteenth century. These essays represent not only those areas where Hume's arguments representative of his age, but also where he is strikingly innovative.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii	(16)
Note on the Text	xxiii	(2)
Select Bibliography	xxv	(2)
Chronology	xxvii
SELECTED ESSAYS
Of Essay Writing	1	(4)
Of the Middle Station of Life	5	(5)
Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion	10	(3)
That Politics may be Reduced to a Science	13	(11)
Of the First Principles of Government	24	(4)
Of the Origin of Government	28	(4)
Of the Parties of Great Britain	32	(6)
Of Superstition and Enthusiasm	38	(5)
Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature	43	(6)
Of Civil Liberty	49	(7)
Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences	56	(21)
The Epicurean	77	(6)
The Stoic	83	(8)
The Platonist	91	(4)
The Sceptic	95	(18)
Of National Characters	113	(13)
Of Tragedy	126	(7)
Of the Standard of Taste	133	(21)
Of Commerce	154	(13)
Of Refinement in the Arts	167	(10)
Of Interest	177	(11)
Of the Balance of Trade	188	(15)
Of Public Credit	203	(13)
Of Some Remarkable Customs	216	(7)
Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations	223	(51)
Of the Original Contract	274	(18)
Of the Protestant Succession	292	(9)
Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth	301	(14)
On Suicide	315	(9)
On the Immortality of the Soul	324	(9)
Editors' Notes	333	(12)
Selected Original Notes and Textual Variants by Hume	345	(52)
List of Names	397