Hume as Social Scientist

Review of Metaphysics 32 (1):99 - 123 (1978)
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Abstract

Since man is a cultural product, Hume's science of man is a normative moral science of action, Not a descriptive natural science of behavior. Man emerges as a role-playing or rule-following agent, Whose comprehension and self-comprehension requires the use of "verstehen" (sympathy). I exemplify this approach in the explanations of the development of justice and science, And I argue against attributing either determinism or positivism to hume. I next show how this perspective illuminates hume's epistemology, specifically the analysis of cause, time, and self. All explanation becomes historical and evolutionary.

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Citations of this work

Hume's universalism: The science of man and the anthropological point of view.Christopher J. Berry - 2007 - British Journal for the History of Philosophy 15 (3):535 – 550.
Hume and the Historicity of Human Nature.Serge Grigoriev - 2015 - Journal of the Philosophy of History 9 (1):118-139.
Narratividade histórica e natureza humana em Hume.Fabiano Lemos - 2014 - Veritas – Revista de Filosofia da Pucrs 59 (3):523-549.

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