For many years I have had an on-again / off-again fascination with Hume, mostly because of his naturalism and sometimes because of his views concerning skepticism and contingency. Always prompted by me teaching him in my intro to philosophy classes though.
This book looks quite interesting, for Hume scholarship. Remember, too, that we might say Quine was a twentieth century Hume in certain respects.
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Hume's Science of Human Nature: Scientific Realism, Reason, and Substantial Explanation
// Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // News
David Landy, Hume's Science of Human Nature: Scientific Realism, Reason, and Substantial Explanation, Routledge, 2017, 278pp., $140.00, ISBN 9781138503137.
Reviewed by Hsueh Qu, National University of Singapore
If we are to view the Treatise of Human Nature as a systematic and cohesive work, we must see Hume's varied investigations as following a consistent and cogent methodology. What is the nature of this methodology? This is the question that David Landy looks to answer in his latest book. Broadly, this monograph argues for a novel take on Hume's understanding of scientific explanation, which undergirds his investigation of the human mind. Crucial to this methodology is the notion of a 'perceptible model' (p.4), involving an experiential model for theoretical posits, with the determinate respects of similarity and differences from concrete experience made clear (akin to Bohr's model of the atom). In arguing for this view, Landy rejects two interpretations:...
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Hume's Science of Human Nature: Scientific Realism, Reason, and Substantial Explanation
// Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews // News
David Landy, Hume's Science of Human Nature: Scientific Realism, Reason, and Substantial Explanation, Routledge, 2017, 278pp., $140.00, ISBN 9781138503137.
Reviewed by Hsueh Qu, National University of Singapore
If we are to view the Treatise of Human Nature as a systematic and cohesive work, we must see Hume's varied investigations as following a consistent and cogent methodology. What is the nature of this methodology? This is the question that David Landy looks to answer in his latest book. Broadly, this monograph argues for a novel take on Hume's understanding of scientific explanation, which undergirds his investigation of the human mind. Crucial to this methodology is the notion of a 'perceptible model' (p.4), involving an experiential model for theoretical posits, with the determinate respects of similarity and differences from concrete experience made clear (akin to Bohr's model of the atom). In arguing for this view, Landy rejects two interpretations:...
Read More
