David Hume and the culture of Scottish Newtonianism : : methodology and ideology in Enlightenment inquiry / / by Tamas Demeter.

• Superior document: Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, volume 259
• VerfasserIn: Demeter, Tamás,
• Place / Publishing House: Boston : : Brill,, [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Brill's studies in intellectual history ; v. 259.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (233 p.)
• Notes: Description based upon print version of record.

David Hume has a canonical place in the context of moral philosophy, but his insights are less frequently discussed in relation to natural philosophy. David Hume and the Culture of Scottish Newtonianism offers a discussion of Hume’s methodological and ideological commitments in matters of knowledge as reflected in his language and outlook. Tamás Demeter argues that several aspects of Hume’s moral philosophy reflect post-Newtonian tendencies in the aftermath of the Opticks , and show affinities with Newton-inspired Scottish physiology and chemistry. Consequently, when Hume describes his project as an 'anatomy of the mind' he uses a metaphor that expresses his commitment to study human cognitive and affective functioning on analogy with active and organic nature, and not with the Principia ’s world of inert matter.

Table of Contents

Preliminary Material -- Introduction -- 1 The Conceptual Unity of Scottish Newtonianism -- 2 The Methodological Unity of Scottish Newtonianism -- 3 Hume’s Copernican Turn -- 4 Newton’s Method and Hume’s Science of Man -- 5 Hume and the Changing Ideology of Natural Inquiry -- 6 Hume’s Experimental Method -- 7 A Chemistry of Perceptions -- 8 An Anatomy and Physiology of Mind -- 9 Three Perspectives on Human Action -- 10 The Objectivity of Moral Cognition and Philosophy -- Conclusion -- Bibliography -- Subject Index -- Name Index.