James A. Harris suggests, in the "Introduction" to his intellectual biography of David Hume, that we should take seriously Hume's description of himself in "My Own Life," composed in April 1776, as having intended from the beginning to live the life of a man of letters. Harris uses the category "man of letters" both to characterise Hume's intellectual career as a whole, and to address the question of how to approach the relation between Hume the philosopher, Hume the essayist, and (...) Hume the historian. In this article, I will discuss Harris's claim that Hume "is best seen not as a philosopher who may or may not have abandoned philosophy in order to write essays and history, but as a man of letters, a philosophical... (shrink)

Anorexia nervosa and obsessive–compulsive disorder are commonly reported to co-occur and present with overlapping symptomatology. Executive functioning difficulties have been implicated in both mental health conditions. However, studies directly comparing these functions in AN and OCD are extremely limited. This review provides a synthesis of behavioral and neuroimaging research examining executive functioning in AN and OCD to bridge this gap in knowledge. We outline the similarities and differences in behavioral and neuroimaging findings between AN and OCD, focusing on set shifting, (...) working memory, response inhibition, and response monitoring. This review aims to facilitate understanding of transdiagnostic correlates of executive functioning and highlights important considerations for future research. We also discuss the importance of examining both behavioral and neural markers when studying transdiagnostic correlates of executive functions. (shrink)