David Hume

[ChrisK]

I haven't read much of David Hume (just abstracts in my Phil 101 class), but the impression I get is that he was extremely anti-metaphyics and a very interesting philosopher. It seems like he was a highly intelligent man who started to break away from many of the trappings of things like metaphysics and religion.

Any thoughts on Hume?

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

His best work is his attack on the design argument: Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

However, much of his other work is crippled by a highly implausible and fanciful empiricist theory of knowledge. Having said that, he is well worth studying, since he anticipated some of Frege's ideas and thus some of Wittgenstein's.

His analysis of causation is flawed but classic.

[ChrisK]

Which is better to study, his Treatise on Human Nature or his Inquiry into Human Understanding?

[ReVoLuTiOnArY-BrOtHeR]

I would recommend the "Treatise on Human Nature". I think its better.

[Rosa Lichtenstein]

The former is long winded; the latter is more to the point and represents his more mature and considered opinions.

[MarxSchmarx]

It's hard not to like Hume. Although I would read the Inquiry first, the treatise deals with ethics and aesthetics as well that are pretty kicking -- it also offers a "grand unifying vision" and is not as tangential to Hume's epistemology as is often supposed.

[meow]

on miracles is a classic which is well worth read. i to like various hume writings. but that one is very favorite.

[Cirno(9)]

Which is better to study, his Treatise on Human Nature or his Inquiry into Human Understanding?

I'd go with the Inquiry. That's what Kant described as what woke him up from his 'dogmatic slumber'