Hume's "Socratic Turn" after A Treatise of Human Nature

• In Event: Ancient Concepts in Contemporary Political Thought

Abstract

In 2015 Thomas W. Merrill published the highly praised Hume and the Politics of Enlightenment, in which he argued that the key to understanding Hume’s thought is his turn to moral and political philosophy, a turn that Hume announces by comparing himself to Socrates in the introduction to A Treatise of Human Nature. Merrill also considered the Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary. Yet his study omits An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding and An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. That neglect is the more significant because Hume renounced the Treatise in favor of the Enquiries. The purpose of this paper is to see whether Merrill’s thesis holds up when the Enquiries and not the Treatise are taken as containing Hume’s philosophy. I will give greater attention to An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. What is the relation between Hume’s skepticism and his naturalism? What is the relation between his skepticism and his moral and political philosophy?

Author

• David Fott, University of Nevada, Las Vegas