David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, and Literary - The Skeptic - Sadler's Lectures

This lecture discusses key ideas from the 18th century philosopher and essayist David Hume's essay "The Skeptic", found in his Essays Moral, Political, and Literary, the first of his four essays that bear names of members of philosophical schools, about which he tells us: "The intention . . . is not so much to explain accurately the sentiments of the ancient sects of philosophy, as to deliver the sentiments of sects, that naturally form themselves in the world, and entertain different ideas of human life and of happiness. I have given each of them the name of the philosophical sect, to which it bears the greatest affinity." The Skeptic is the longest of the four essays, and can be taken as a short presentation of Hume's own ideas about philosophy and life. The perspective of this fourth essay calls into question the perspectives of the three previous essays, and focuses not only on the difference in viewpoints on important matters between human beings, but also on why this is the case. It turns out the ascriptions of values such as beautiful or ugly, worthy or contemptible are additions to judgements about the truth or falsity of matters, and these value-ascriptions derive from a number of particular circumstances. To support my ongoing work, go to my Patreon site - www.patreon.com/sadler If you'd like to make a direct contribution, you can do so here - www.paypal.me/ReasonIO - or at BuyMeACoffee - www.buymeacoffee.com/A4quYdWoM You can find over 3,500 philosophy videos in my main YouTube channel - www.youtube.com/user/gbisadler You can get Hume's Essays Moral, Political, and Literary here - https://amzn.to/45AmQqs