If only Hume himself could be on the show, but no such luck. Peter Millican appears to explain about Hume. The importance of Hume lies in epistemology and his ardent skepticism therein. He is considered one of the greatest philosophers from Britain and I think I missed Millican pointing out that for example Popper was highly influenced by Hume.A very entertaining insight is given in Hume's assumptions about God. Millican makes a case Hume was actually an agnostic, possibly even an atheist. He had to hide these views in his work though in order not to enrage his friends and colleagues. So Millican shows how Hume disguises his thoughts, but how you nevertheless can extract them.
More Philosophy Bites:
Several issues of Philosophy Bites,
Free rider problem,
Humanism,
Is war innate?,
Wittgenstein.
2 comments:
I have always thought of Hume as at least an agnostic and a borderline atheist. His empiricism shares a lot with secularism and atheism.
Thanks for you comment. What I understood from the podcast, you are not the only one who thought so.
Personally I have never spent any thought on that question, but that is just lack of interest and a predisposition for logic of science.
Thanks for the link to the Philosophy Discussion Forum
Anne
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