Rejecting a morality based on religious sanctions and appeals to a spiritual order of being, David Hume advocated a wholehearted immersion in worldliness. Contemtus mundi is replaced with amor mundi, an orientation that Hume saw as fostering virtue and socially beneficial relationships.

This chapter argues for the History of England’s importance in Hume’s overall achievement. The chapter describes the History’s genesis, reception, methods, and aims. In the role of historian, Hume shared with the ancients the assumption that history is an elevated genre functioning as the “Mistress of Wisdom.” Yet this long work is more notable for historiographical innovation. Like William Robertson and Edward Gibbon, Hume wrote conjectural or philosophical history. Like Machiavelli, Voltaire, and Montesquieu, Hume wrote civil or cultural history, including (...) detailed information on political events, law, commerce, and manners. In a larger sense, the History demonstrates a great philosopher leaving his study to deal with that practical, sometimes intractable world outside the study. A priori reasoning is tested against that a posteriori reality provided by historical evidence. Thus, in writing the History, Hume became an empiricist in an almost literal sense. (shrink)

SAMUEL JOHNSON IS SOMETIMES VIEWED AS A DOGMATIST WHOSE POLEMICAL SUCCESS OWED MORE TO THE THUNDER OF HIS VOICE THAN TO THE SUBTLETY OF HIS ARGUMENTATION. HOWEVER, IN THOSE PASSAGES OF BOSWELL WHICH RECORD JOHNSON’S REACTIONS TO HUME’S SKEPTICISM, JOHNSON DEMONSTRATES A FAMILIARITY WITH HUME’S REASONING AND A FAIRLY DEFT USE OF HUME’S OWN WEAPONS TO OPPOSE HIM. THOUGH BOSWELL SEEMS NOT TO HAVE RECOGNIZED WHAT HIS MENTOR WAS DOING, JOHNSON’S WIT TENDS TO IMPLY THAT WHEN HUME PROFESSED URBANE ALOOFNESS (...) TO THOSE FEARS AND WEAKNESSES WHICH BESET MOST MEN--AN ATTITUDE THAT DISTURBED BOSWELL PROFOUNDLY--HUME HIMSELF HAD BECOME A SELF-INTERESTED EXPLOITER OF THE MIRACULOUS. (shrink)