Hume's Touchstone and the Politics of Meaningful Discourse
In this paper I propose we read David Hume's view of meaningful discourse, or his theory of meaning, as an aspect of his theory of politics. I will argue that readings which ignore the political dimension are incomplete and distort Hume's position. When I use the word ‘political’ in the Humean context, however, it means something similar to what we mean by the term ‘social’; in the Humean context ‘politics’ is inclusive of the narrow sense taken by political science in its study of regular partisan politics and governance structures. My proposal is similar to the social-context or social-constructivist interpretations of commentators such as Pall Ardal, Donald Livingston, and Nicholas Capaldi. A political reading also stresses the importance of social context in our understanding of Hume, and agrees with the social-context argument that there is a social or political dimension to intellectual life which Hume hints at but does not address directly in Book 1 of the Treatise.
The Hume Literature, 1996
This bibliography covers the Hume literature for 1996. I have appended supplements containing additions and corrections to "The Hume Literature, 1986-1993" (November 1994), "The Hume Literature, 1994" (November 1995), and "The Hume Literature, 1995" (November 1996). I am grateful to all who have contributed additions or corrections to these bibliographies, and I again encourage readers of Hume Studies to supply additions, corrections, or bibliographical information still missing from any of these listings. For the Hume literature prior to 1986, the reader should consult Roland Hall's authoritative Fifty Years of Hume Scholarship: A Bibliographic Guide (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1978), which covers the period 1925 to 1976, and also lists the main earlier work on Hume. Hall's Hume Studies bibliographies supplement that work. They appeared from 1978 to 1988 and cover the years 1977 to 1985. My bibliographies depart from Hall's practice in that they do not list items published in Hume Studies. Articles and reviews from 1975 through 1993 (Volumes I-XIX) were comprehensively indexed in the November 1993 issue. Subsequent November issues include an index for that year's volume. The next bibliography, which will cover the Hume literature for 1997, will appear in the November 1998 issue. Readers are again invited to send me notices or offprints of their articles, reviews, editions, anthologies, and dissertations for inclusion in the next bibliography. Please email, FAX, or write to the addresses at the bottom of this page.
Hume on the Idea of Existence
The idea of existence, then, is the very same with the idea of what we conceive to be existent. To reflect on any thing simply, and to reflect on it as existent, are nothing different from each other. That idea, when conjoin'd with the idea of any object, makes no addition to it. Whatever we conceive, we conceive to be existent. Any idea we please to form is the idea of a being; and the idea of a being is any idea we please to form.2