Charles Pigden considers Hume’s famous claim that you can’t deduce an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’. According to David Hume, his Treatise of Human Nature “fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction, as even to excite a murmur among the zealots.” Since Hume’s day his still-born baby has undergone a mighty resurrection and the …
Peter Cave discusses the idea that not existing has never hurt anyone. Permit me to introduce Mademoiselle Gazelle, a desirable and desired young woman, so named because of her gazellish sleek glidings through Soho’s streets – Mademoiselle Gazelle, with hair cascading, red lipstick a-glowing, radiating youth and beauty. An unlikely candidate for deathly discussions, she …
Filiz Peach explains what two of the greatest existentialist thinkers thought about death: Martin Heidegger and Karl Jaspers. Death has been discussed comprehensively by very few philosophers. Those who have dealt with it offer their views mostly on the awareness of death. Indeed, the only knowledge we have regarding death itself is that it is …
Paul Warwick considers Hume’s argument against testimony concerning miracles. I have a friend who was once deeply immersed in the occult. Now he’s a Pentecostal Christian who has renounced his former beliefs and broken with the practices of that way of life. Even so, I can’t help thinking that there is at least one common …
Bernard Down explains how two ancient Chinese philosophers explored new perspectives on matters of life and death. Daoism (or Taoism) is both a religion and a philosophy. The religion mixed magic, alchemy and shamanism with the search for immortality, while the philosophy was born with the collection of aphorisms, anecdotes and stories known as the …
Marc Bobro scrutinizes how Hume thinks about thought. David Hume believed that the mind represents the world by having contents that resemble it, such as having images of it. This way of thinking about thinking has been called imagism. But, as Bertrand Russell and his friend Ludwig Wittgenstein noted much later, the same images can …
Sally Latham shows how Hume’s views on causality really take the biscuit. Hume is usually seen as the champion of the anti-metaphysical stance. In Section I of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding he says metaphysics is “not properly a science,” and seeks to “penetrate into subjects utterly inaccessible to the understanding” (p.11, OUP edition). In …
Howard Darmstadter looks at the life and legacy of the incendiary tercentenarian. In 1734, David Hume, a bookish 23-year-old Scotsman, abandoned conventional career options and went off to France to Think Things Over. Living frugally and devoting himself to study and writing, he returned after three years with a hefty manuscript under his arm. Published …
Is George W. Bush a serial killer? Terri Murray attacks the death penalty with the help of two prisoners executed by the state – Socrates and Jesus. Then one ought not return injustice for injustice or do ill to any man, no matter what one may suffer at their hands. Look to this, Crito. Do …
Grahame Lockey writes pithy observations to make you think about pithy observations to make you think. I once sat down to write a poem. Four words into it, I realised it was complete. It didn’t want a title, it wanted to be left alone: Absence begins at home. I didn’t know what it was that …