Posted by zeugma on December 9, 2005, at 16:33:40
In reply to Re: Duh.. Gabbi, posted by caraher on December 9, 2005, at 10:05:16
> > Maybe david Hume was the only philosopher who wasn't a jerk.
>
> Didn't Hume prefer to think of himself as a historian rather than a philosopher? At any rate, I seem to recall that his greatest lasting fame was not in the area he considered his forte.>>Hume did write a History of England, but as far as I can recall, he did this because there was a paycheck attached, and his philosophical masterwork, "A Treatise of Human Nature", "fell dead-born from the press" (i.e. didn't sell a lick).
His fame (as I understand it) is as a critic of metaphysical systems, who woke Immanuel Kant from his "dogmatic slumbers", and who scandalized Scotland so greatly that they established a "Common-Sense" school of philosophy (which itself produced some notable works).
One sign of non-jerkhood, as I understand it, is that when asked to add an autobiography to his philosophical essays (which did sell modestly, and are considered important contributions to political philosophy, ethics, and aesthetics) it was all of two pages.
-z
>
> Which might explain your observation...
poster:zeugma
thread:586858
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20051121/msgs/587486.html