The Pursuits of Philosophy: An Introduction to the Life and Thought of David Hume

by Annette C. Baier

Marking the tercentenary of David Hume's birth, Annette Baier has created an engaging guide to the philosophy of one of the greatest thinkers of Enlightenment Britain. Drawing deeply on a lifetime of scholarship and incisive commentary, she deftly weaves Hume’s autobiography together with his writings and correspondence, finding in these personal experiences new ways to illuminate his ideas about religion, human nature, and the social order.

Excerpts from Hume’s autobiography at the beginning of each chapter open a window onto the eighteenth-century context in which Hume’s philosophy developed. Famous in Christian Britain as a polymath and a nonbeliever, Hume recounts how his early encounters with clerical authority laid the foundation for his lifelong skepticism toward religion. In Scotland, where he grew up, he had been forced to study lists of sins in order to spot his own childish flaws, he reports. Later, as a young man, he witnessed the clergy’s punishment of a pregnant unmarried servant, and this led him to question the violent consequences of the Church’s emphasis on the doctrine of original sin. Baier’s clear interpretation of Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature explains the link between Hume’s growing disillusionment and his belief that ethics should be based on investigations of human nature, not on religious dogma.

Four months before he died, Hume concluded his autobiography with a eulogy he wrote for his own funeral. It makes no mention of his flaws, critics, or disappointments. Baier’s more realistic account rivets our attention on connections between the way Hume lived and the way he thought―insights unavailable to Hume himself, perhaps, despite his lifelong introspection.

Genres: Philosophy, Biography

176 pages, Hardcover

First published October 3, 2011

About the author

Annette C. Baier, a well-known moral philosopher and Hume scholar, focused in particular on Hume's moral psychology. She is well known also for her contributions to feminist philosophy and to the philosophy of mind, where she was strongly influenced by her former colleague, Wilfrid Sellars. Her husband was the philosopher Kurt Baier. For most of her career she taught in the philosophy department at the University of Pittsburgh, having moved there from Carnegie Mellon University. She retired to her native Dunedin, New Zealand, where she graduated from the University of Otago.

She is a former President of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association, an office reserved for the elite of her profession. Baier received an honorary Doctor of Literature from the University of Otago in 1999.

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

Presumably this slim book has a pretty specialized audience. It is not an in-depth biography of the Scottish philosopher David Hume; rather, it's more of an extended commentary on Hume's autobiography, written shortly before his death, age 65, in 1776. It's characteristic of the book that, as best I can tell, it doesn't actually identify his death date; Baier's interest is in the relationship between Hume's life experiences and the evolution of his philosophical ideas. She also points out places where the autobiography departs from the other evidence of Hume's life as attested by his published writings and letters (for example, contradicting his claim that he never found 'reason to complain of calumny', when he clearly did).

Perhaps this is a good alternative to one of the longer, academic biographies for a reader who needs to know some but not too much about Hume, though it would be worth comparing this to the Oxford University Press 'Very Short Introduction to Hume', which I haven't read. What I valued most in this book is Baier's 10 page afterword, in which she shares what she finds most wise in Hume's philosophy: his focus on our animal natures as a starting point for thinking about society and ethics; his belief that all societies are flawed and idiosyncratic, but that it is worth tolerating local customs where possible, while promoting the rights of all through gradual reform; his understanding of the way cultural goods depend on economic factors; his conception of how humans think and feel, including the role of empathy; his interest in social convention and trust; and his 'true skepticism". For anyone interested in Hume or the Scottish Enlightenment generally, this afterword is worth searching the book out from a library or borrowing from a friend.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very short...and very very frustrating. For an introduction to the life and thought of David Hume, this feels almost impenetrable at times. The writing style is a stream-of-consciousness mash-up of biography, commentary, personal opinion, and drawn out info-dumping...and it makes this small little book feel like swimming through treacle. What did I get out of this dip into Hume? Only 3 things: (1) he wasn't quite sure if he was an atheist or an agnostic; (2) I could make an assumption that today we'd put him somewhere on the Asperger's spectrum; (3) I could make a similar assumption that he may have been gay or aesexual. Suffice to say that I wasn't expecting any of this when I began to read this book.

[LA · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very well written and concise overview of Hume's primary works.

[Rob Melich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good appetizer for learning about Hume but light on information or analysis.

[Lia · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was rather rambling and sometimes repetitive. I'd hoped for a better sense of one of my favorite philosophers' personality and life, but this mostly offered tidbits relevant to his writings and discussed his ideas and their reception more than anything, and in a sort of disorganized way that left me unsatisfied. I may look for a biography or two that were mentioned within. I'm still glad that I read it. I know more than I did before, and I smiled and even laughed a few times.

I agreed with all the points in the Afterword about what the author found wise about Hume, with the exception of one statement that I think is her own: "We are also aggressive and acquisitive animals, who need rules and police and governments if we are to live in peace." I find this statement ignorant of the anthropological perspective and instead firmly rooted in Western Civilization's perspective. Which is often my problem with western philosophy.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book, written for a 'general audience,' is both charming and helpful. Using Hume's Autobiography as an introduction, Baier comments on his life and most importantly explains his ideas. She writes with such familiarity and understanding that one gets the sense that she is simply writing about anold friend. I have found it hard to get a sense of Hume beyond the headlines. How do his thoughts hang together as the thoughts of one man? How is his History related to his Treatise? What is the difference between the Treatise and the Enquiry? What can be said about his 'mental breakdown? Hume, Baier says was a skeptic, meaning that he considered all sides of an issue without coming down with certainty on one side [though not without having his opinions]. Baier writes about Hume's life with this skeptical approach. I very much appreciated that.

[Chris S · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice little overview.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short bio, kind of dry.