David Hume and the Enlightenment

The Scottish philosopher, essayist and historian, David Hume, was among the first great thinkers of the Enlightenment, and among the first to develop a thoroughly secular account of morality – an account that continues to be a live option.  In this seminar participants will read selections from Hume’s short work, /An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals/, and will scrutinize his claim that morality is a matter of our feelings and sentiments, and is not located in our rational capacities.  Participants will also assess his claim that justice is a merely artificial virtue, a virtue that, in principle, need never have arisen and that could, in principle, disappear.

Seminar led by Daniel Brudney, University of Chicago