Ebook: Hume and the Enlightenment

While Hume remains one of the most central figures in modern philosophy, his place within Enlightenment thinking is much less clearly defined. Although historically an Enlightenment figure, this identity is often missed due to misunderstandings of both his philosophy and of the movement itself. Taking recent work on Hume as a starting point, this volume of original essays aims to re-examine and clarify Hume's influence on the thought and values of the Enlightenment. There are many books on Hume's philosophy, but few that deal with his influence on Enlightenment thinking and ideas more generally. Indeed, while Hume is now widely regarded as one of the most significant of British philosophers, he was in his day also counted as a weighty essayist and historian. Further, the influences of Hume's empiricism stretch from encouraging the exploration of sentiment in literature to being a forerunner of the new discipline of cognitive science. This volume is a valuable resource to students and researchers seeking to establish what it is that counts as Enlightenment thinking, and whether Hume should really be regarded as a philosopher of the Enlightenment world.