Susan Cooper has been writing for over 30 years. In this time she has written numerous newspaper articles, books for children and adults, screenplays for TV, the cinema and a Broadway play. As a writer she is hard to classify, what is universally accepted is that she is a writer with extraordinary gifts. Born in Burnham, Buckinghamshire, England in May 1935, Susan Cooper attended Slough High School before going up to Oxford University. At Somerville College she read English. During her time at
parallels to Hume. I argue that virtuous character in Aristotle is understood in terms of "self-love." A true self-lover enjoys most the exercise of the characteristic human powers of judging, choosing, deciding and deliberating. A virtuous agent's self-love enables sizing up practical situations properly and exhibiting the virtue called for by the situation. But if an agent's character is defective, the practical situation will be misapprehended and responded to improperly. I argue that though Hume claims
No Universal Truth Hume wrote, “be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man,” (qtd. in Jones 351). This statement strikes me more than all others, written by Hume or any of the philosophers from W. T. Jones’ Hobbes to Hume. It demonstrates to me that even after all of the inquisition towards what and how we can know anything, and the very methodical ways in which Hume is reputed to examine these things, he realizes that nothing is truly certain and begins to lean towards
Cited Aristotle. Nicomachean Ethics. Translated by Terence Irwin. Hackett Publishing Company: Indianapolis. 1985. Descartes, Rene. Meditations on First Philosophy. Translated by John Cottingham. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. 1996. Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. 2nd edition. Hackett Publishing: Indianapolis. 1993.
David Hume makes a strong affirmation in section IV of an Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Hume states, "I shall venture to affirm as a general proposition, which admits of no exception, that the knowledge of this relation is not, in any instance attained by reasonings a priori; but entirely from experience." In this statement, when discussing "knowledge of this relation," Hume is referring to the relation between cause and effect. This argument can easily be dismissed as skeptical, for it
Comparing Locke and Hume If we are to understand the difference between Locke and Hume’s account of how ideas work, we must forth set the pertinent terms of each of their arguments. The two essential terms in Locke’s discussion of how ideas work are idea and object. Locke defines an idea as "whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks" (Cahn, 494). Locke has "used [idea] to express whatever is meant by phantasm, notion, species, or whatever it is that the mind can be employed
that only an enduring, unified agent could interact with them in the way Hume describes. I note that Hume attempts to provide such an agent by invoking the activities of imagination and memory, but that it is unclear where these belong in his system. After discussing the relevant possibilities, I conclude that there is no category within the limits of his system that can accommodate the faculties and allow them to do the work Hume assigned to them. I then note that Hume’s rejection of substantival mind
ideas and opinions (Sartre4). David Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 7, 1711. Educated at home and then at the University of Edinburgh; here he studies law but then decides to pursue an independent study of his own ideas (Sartre 132). From 1734 to 1737 Hume was busy writing his book, A Treatise of Human Nature, which talked about the problems of thoughtful philosophy (Hampshire 105). However, the public ignored this important piece of work making Hume feel like he was "dead-born." After
sentiment (the feeling of pleasure or displeasure) was famously made by David Hume in his essay "Of the Standard of Taste." Hume's attempt is generally regarded as fundamentally important in the project of explaining the nature of value judgements in the arts by means of an empirical, rather than a priori, relation. Recently, Hume's argument has been strongly criticized by Malcolm Budd in his book Values of Art. Budd contends that Hume utterly fails to show how any given value judgement in the arts can be
however, this account captures only a necessary condition for belief; it is not sufficient to explain belief. Why not? We can bring together two ideas in the mind, e.g. when we imagine something, without thereby entertaining a belief. Mill agrees with Hume here, and this first inquiry concerning the nature of propositions is none other that Hume’s question about the difference between belief and the mere entertainment of a proposition. Mill does not attempt to answer Hume’s question, however. The
Hume is an empiricist and a skeptic. He develops a philosophy that is generally approached in a manner as that of a scientist and therefore he thinks that he can come up with a law for human understanding. Hume investigates the understanding as an empiricist to try and understand the origins of human ideas. Empiricism is the notion that all knowledge comes from experience. Skepticism is the practice of not believing things in nature a priori, but instead investigating things to discover what is really
supporting their views on the subject. It is the “argument from design” put forth by Cleanthes that is the focal point of the discussion, and it is Demea and Philo who attempt to discredit it. It is Cleanthes who gets the ball rolling in Part II of Hume by laying out his “argument from design.” Cleanthes believes that there is ample evidence in the nature that surrounds us to draw conclusions on what God is like. Cleanthes compares the surrounding world as one great “machine.” He goes on to discuss
Nijhoff. Williams, B. A. O. 1963. "Hume on Religion," in David F. Pears, ed. David Hume: A Symposium. London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin's Press, 77-88. Wollheim, Richard, ed. 1963. Hume on Religion. London: William Collins Sons/Fontana Library. (editor's introduction, 7-30) Wood, Forrest E., Jr. 1971. "Hume's Philosophy of Religion as Reflected in the Dialogues." Southwestern Journal of Philosophy II, 185-193. Yandell, Keith E. 1976. "Hume on Religious Belief." In Livingston, Donald
presented in the Enquiry, as Hume makes explicit in the Author’s Advertisement that the Treatise was a “work which the Author [Hume] had projected before he left College, and which he wrote and published not long after. But not finding it successful, he was sensible of his error in going to the press to early, and he cast the whole anew in the following pieces, where some negligence in his former reasoning and more in the expression, are, he hopes, corrected.” (Hume 1772, xxxi) Generally the inconsistencies
began to challenge authorities, including great teachers such as Aristotle and Plato, and through skepticism the modern world began. The French philosopher, René Descartes who implemented reason to find truth, as well as the British empiricist David Hume with his usage of analytic-synthetic distinction, most effectively utilized the practices of skepticism in the modern world. René Descartes was the first philosopher to introduce the intellectual system known as “radical doubt.” According to Descartes
From the origin of Western philosophical thought, there has been an interest in moral laws. As Hume points out in the Treatise, "morality is a subject that interests us above all others" (David Hume "A Treatise of Human Nature'). Originally, thoughts of how to live were centered on the issue of having the most satisfying life, with "virtue governing one's relations to others" (J.B. Schneewind 'Modern Moral Philosophy'). However, the view that there is one way to live that is best for everyone and
Hume was the first thinker to point out the implications of the "representative theory of perception." He had inherited this theory from both his rationalist and empiricist predecessors. According to this view, when one says that he/she perceives something such as an apple, what it actually means is that the one has in the mind a mental idea or image or impression. Such a datum is an internal, mental, subjective representation of something that I assume to be an external, physical, fact. But there
goal in his philosophic endeavors was to undermine abstruse Philosophy. By focusing on the aspect of reason, Hume shows there are limitations to philosophy. Since he did not know the limits, he proposed to use reason to the best of his ability, but when he came to a boundary, that was the limit. He conjectured that we must study reason to find out what is beyond the capability of reason. Hume began his first examination if the mind by classifying its contents as Perceptions. “Here therefore [he divided]
In Appendix I., Concerning Moral Sentiment, David Hume looks to find a place in morality for reason, and sentiment. Through, five principles he ultimately concludes that reason has no place within the concept of morality, but rather is something that can only assist sentiment in matters concerning morality. And while reason can be true or false, those truths or falsities apply to facts, not to morality. He then argues morals are the direct result of sentiment, or the inner feeling within a human
What Came First: The Chicken or the Egg? David Hume moves through a logical progression of the ideas behind cause and effect. He critically analyzes the reasons behind those generally accepted ideas. Though the relation of cause and effect seems to be completely logical and based on common sense, he discusses our impressions and ideas and why they are believed. Hume’s progression, starting with his initial definition of cause, to his final conclusion in his doctrine on causality. As a result, it