Selected Essays

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

• ISBN13: 9780199540303
• ISBN10: 0199540306
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-01
• 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

Note on the Text

Select Bibliography

Chronology

Of Essay Writing

Of the Middle Station of Life

Of the Delicacy of Taste and Passion

That Politics may be Reduced to a Science

Of the First Principles of Government

Of the Origin of Government

Of the Parties of Great Britain

Of Superstition and Enthusiasm

Of the Dignity or Meanness of Human Nature

Of Civil Liberty

Of the Rise and Progress of the Arts and Sciences

The Epicurean

The Stoic

The Platonist

The Sceptic

Of National Characters

Of Tragedy

Of the Standard of Taste

Of Commerce

Of Refinement in the Arts

Of Interest

Of the Balance of Trade

Of Public Credit

Of Some Remarkable Customs

Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations

Of the Original Contract

Of the Protestant Succession

Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth

On Suicide

On the Immortality of the Soul

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