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Hume's Methodology and the Science of Human Nature

15 June, 2018

Vasilyev V.
Pub. in: Историко-философский ежегодник 2012. М., 2013. C. 62-115.

In this paper I discuss a few turning points in Hume’s life and try to show that their traditional representations must be reconsidered. At first, I discuss the early period of Hume’s intellectual development and argue that his recently discovered “An Early Fragment on Evil” is a manuscript copy of a section of a treatise on natural religion, written by Hume in 1729-1731 and destroyed about 1751. Then I turn to his “Treatise of Human Nature” and suggest a method of reconstructing the order of its writing by Hume. After that I discuss another lost work of Hume on metaphysical basis of geometry. Among other things, I show that this treatise was a rather small essay. And, finally, I consider one important but almost unknown episode, that took place in Hume’s last days. All these considerations might contribute to reassessment of a trajectory of Hume’s life in the whole.

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