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David Hume: the Making of a Philosophical Historian

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David Hume: the Making of a Philosophical Historian David Hume: The Making of a Philosophical Historian A Reconsideration Moritz Baumstark Ph.D The University of Edinburgh 2007 DECLARATION The present PhD thesis has been composed by myself alone and represents my own work, which has not been submitted for any other degree or qualification. ______________________________ Moritz Baumstark ABSTRACT OF THESIS The thesis is concerned with the exploration of the interconnections between philosophy and history in David Hume’s work and seeks to provide a reassessment of his remarkable transition from metaphysical philosopher and polite essayist to philosophical and narrative historian. The first part of the thesis puts forth a detailed reappraisal of Hume’s intellectual preoccupations and literary pursuits in the crucial but neglected period 1748-1752, a period that witnessed Hume’s tour of several European courts in 1748, his intensive reading of the classics and his engagement with Montesquieu’s new system of socio-political analysis. These years saw a decisive shift in Hume’s thinking about human nature that resulted in an increasing emphasis on its historicity. It is argued that this helps to explain his growing insistence on the necessity of accounting for the varied manifestations of human nature in different historical periods by a reconstruction of the social, political and economical conditions of past societies as well as their customs, manners and belief systems. It is furthermore argued that Hume’s new holistic view of past civilisations found its expression in a number of diverse pieces which can be read as fragments of a cultural history of classical antiquity and contain an important agenda for a new kind of cultural history. The second part of the thesis considers the significance of this thinking for Hume’s plans for a large-scale work of modern British political history. The discussion is focussed on the History of Great Britain under the House of Stuart (1754-56) and pays particular attention to his intentions as a political historian. It is shown that the success of his work depended largely on his skill in raising his readers’ ‘interest’ and his adeptness in conveying his own ‘impartiality’ as a historian. It is argued that Hume’s achievement can best be understood through an in-depth analysis of his innovative appropriation of a narrative device that had already been used by many historians from Thucydides to Rapin-Thoyras, the set-piece political debate, which Hume employed as the main device for explaining the emergence of a mixed British constitution. The thesis thus offers a fresh interpretation of the relationship between Hume’s concept of philosophical history and his aims and techniques as a narrative historian and seeks to contribute to our understanding of the trajectory of his intellectual and literary career as well as the profound transformation of historical writing in the High Enlightenment. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviations 7 Introduction: Hume’s Transition from Philosopher to Historian 9 Part I: From Moral Philosophy to Cultural History, 1748-1752 34 1. Confronting Cultural Diversity: Hume’s Travels and his Response to Montesquieu’s L’Esprit des Lois 35 1. 1. The Travelling Philosopher on a Diplomatic Tour of Europe, 1748 35 1. 2. ‘Of National Characters’ (1748): A Critique of L’Esprit des Lois ? 41 1. 3. Hume’s Engagement with Montesquieu’s New System, 1749-1755 48 2. Towards a Cultural History of Antiquity 66 2. 1. Hume’s Reading of the Classics at Ninewells, 1749-51 66 2. 2. Hume’s Historical Dissertation on the Populousness of Antiquity 76 2. 2. 1. The ‘Enquiry concerning Causes’: Political Science and the Study of History 76 2. 2. 2. The ‘Enquiry concerning Facts’: Erudition and the Art of Source Criticism 84 2. 3. Hume’s Fragmentary History of Classical Civilizations 92 3. Hume’s New Concept of Philosophical History 104 3. 1. ‘A Dialogue’: From Moral Philosophy to Cultural History 104 3. 2. The Historian as Traveller: Hume’s Idea of Philosophical History 112 Part II: The Construction of an Historical Narrative, 1752-1756 116 4. Towards a History of Great Britain , 1747-56 117 4. 1. ‘My Historical Projects’: Hume’s Intentions Reconsidered, 1747-52 117 4. 2. The Transformation of Hume’s History of Great Britain , 1752-59 131 5. Hume’s Bid to Occupy the Vacant ‘Post of Honour in the English Parnassus’ 147 5. 1. KTHMA ES AEI: Hume’s Thucydidean Aspirations as a Historian 147 5. 2. ‘Impartial Reasoners’: Hume, Rapin, and the Quest for Impartiality 156 6. Narrative and Philosophy in Hume’s History of Great Britain : The Case of the Set-Piece Debates 164 6. 1. Party-Political Debates in Rapin and Hume’s Narratives of Stuart History 164 6. 2. The Fortunes of Thucydidean Speeches and Debates in Classical and Early Modern Historical Writing 178 6. 3. Between Political Science and the Natural History of Opinion: The Nature and Significance of Hume’s Set-Piece Political Debates 197 Conclusion: Hume and the Writing of History En Philosophe 218 Bibliography 225 Appendix: A List of Classical Citations in Hume’s ‘Of the Populousness of Ancient Nations’ 251 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CCH The Cambridge Companion to David Hume , ed. David Fate Norton (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1993). EHU David Hume, An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding , ed. Tom L. Beauchamp (Oxford: OUP, 1999). EPM David Hume, An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals , ed. Tom L. Beauchamp (Oxford: OUP, 1998). Essays David Hume, Essays moral, political, and literary , rev. edn. Eugene F. Miller (Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1987). HE David Hume, The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to The Revolution in 1688 , ed. William B. Todd (6 vols.; Indianapolis: Liberty Classics, 1983). HGB David Hume, The History of Great Britain: The Reigns of James I. and Charles I. , ed. and intro. Duncan Forbes (London: Penguin Books, 1970). HL The Letters of David Hume , ed. J. Y. T. Greig (2 vols.; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1932). NHL New Letters of David Hume , ed. Raymond Klibansky and Ernest C. Mossner (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1954). 7 OC Oeuvres C omplè tes de Montesquieu , ed. André Masson (3 vols.; Paris: Nagel, 1950). Responses Early responses to Hume’s History of England , ed. and intro. James Fieser (2 vols.; Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2002). Treatise David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature , ed. David Fate Norton and Mary J. Norton, Oxford Philosophical Texts (Oxford: OUP, 2000). 8 Introduction: Hume’s Transition from Philosopher to Historian The present study seeks to provide an in-depth account of Hume’s intellectual and literary career in the crucial period extending from 1748 to 1756, a period of intense literary activity which saw the appearance of Hume’s mature works of epistemology, moral philosophy and political economy as well as his first and most important foray into narrative history which resulted in the production of the two-volume History of Great Britain (1754-56). The study focuses on a number of Hume’s intellectual preoccupations during this period and seeks to explore them in greater detail than has hitherto been attempted with the aim of providing a fuller picture of the development of Hume’s thinking on history during this period as well as a reassessment of his remarkable transformation from moral philosopher to philosophical historian. In so doing the study will reconsider the scholarly accounts so far given of this transformation and seek to establish in how far these adequately capture the complexity of the period. Before we commence our investigation of the first half of the period in question, it will be useful to consider the major scholarly accounts given of Hume’s overall career and enquire in how far they take notice of the period in question. A survey of these will be followed by a brief consideration of a number of common assumptions about Hume’s career which, though problematic, are shared by most scholars. This will in turn allow us to propose an approach to this period which differs from those employed by previous investigators. Before we embark on this survey and critique of existing scholarly accounts of Hume’s intellectual career, it will be requisite to give a necessarily very brief outline of Hume’s complex career. We shall take as our starting point a short account of a debate Hume is said to have had with two of his friends, which provides us with a number of insights into Hume’s career and thought. One morning in early autumn 1761, David Hume received a visit from an old friend in his temporary London lodgings in Lisle Street, Leicester Fields. Robert Clerk was a London Scot with a promising army career whom Hume had known for well over ten 9 years and whom he regarded as a person of ‘great Cleverness & Ingenuity’. 1 Among his friends Clerk was famed for his quickness of intellect and feared for his ferocious manner of arguing. Acting like a good army-man, he was known to give no quarter and defend every inch of ground in discussions with the Edinburgh literati, one of whom went so far as to remark that ‘of all the Men who had so much understanding, [Clerk] was the Most Disagreeable person to Converse’ with.2 Thus the stage was set for a heated debate. The conversation soon touched on a subject foremost in Hume’s mind at this time, namely the latest and last instalment of his History of England , concerned with the medieval period, which Hume was in then process of preparing for the press and which would be published in November of that year. 3 Complimenting Hume on his ‘Stile & Politeness in writing’, Clerk expressed his satisfaction that Hume ‘had taken to History in which he could not avoid being Instructive [a]nd Agreeable too’.
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