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Within fifty years of its foundation in 1726 the Edinburgh Medical School had become the pre-emjnent centre of medical education in the English speaking world. This pre-eminence was part of the cultural movement known as the Scottish Enlightenment. What is attempted here is an elucidation of the intellectual content of the medicine taught at Edinburgh during the period 1726-1776 and the relation of its specific features to the changing Scottish social and philosophical context. When the School was founded its comprehensive curriculum was virtually a copy of that created by Hermann Boerhaave at Leyden. The professors at Edinburgh taught that medicine was a systematic body of knowledge which was to be learned synthetically, beginning with Newtonian natural philosophy. The establishment of Boerhaave's medical system in Edinburgh signified the increasing power in the city of pro-union,improvement minded Scots committed to the values of the Enlightenment. The Edinburgh medical courses on offer in the 1770s had overall similarity with those of the earlier period. The professors still taught that medicine was a systematic discipline which should be based on natural philosophy. However the foreign, Boerhaavian system had been rejected by all of them in favour of idiosyncratic medical systems which had many features in common with each other. Surgery, pathological anatomy, nosology, nosography, and a nervous physiology had all become more prominent in the teaching. Scepticism as the predominant attitude to medical knowledge. Besides relating these elements to intellectual changes in European medicine generally, I have tried to shov how they were shaped by particular local considerations. Further I also attempt to display how specific systematic differences, such as that between John Gregory and William Cullen, indicate differing allegiances to different Scottish philosophical and social groups.

[…] Por mucho tiempo se pensó que en Hume no había tal cosa como un interés propiamente epistemológico, es decir se pensó que no había interés alguno por describir condiciones normativas que justificaran nuestro conocimiento, sino más bien una descripción psicológica y por ende subjetiva del modo en que tienen lugar nuestros estado de “certeza” subjetiva. Por otra parte, hay una de las tres condiciones mencionadas que pocas veces es tratada en el marco del problema de la justificación, a saber, la verdad de la creencia. La verdad de la creencia, sin embargo, como se verá, no necesariamente ha de ser considerada como la verdad objetiva más allá del marco de las creencias del sujeto. Es decir, no es necesario, según creo, adquirir compromisos ontológicos en el marco de una teoría realista para sostenes una teoría de la justificación epistémica propiamente normativa. Para llegar a este punto en la filosofía de Hume, sin embargo, se analizará en el primer capítulo el origen y principales influencias del proyecto humeano de la ciencia del hombre. En la sección I, intentaré mostrar cómo la filosofía de Hume se comprende de manera más cabal en contraste con la filosofía a la que se opone, a saber, la metafísica racionalista. Leeremos, tal como Hume sugiere en su correspondencia, su Tratado de la Naturaleza Humana, en contraste con la filosofía cartesiana. En ella hallaremos una de las teorías de la justificación más conocidas y debatidas en la espistemología, a saber, el fundacionalismo clásico. En este mismo contexto haré notar la búsqueda de Hume de una renovada concepción de conocimiento capaz de subsanar los vicios de la vieja escuela. En las secciones II y III intentaré mostrar los principales recursos de Hume para levantar una nueva metafísica, que no es sino su así llamada ciencia de la naturaleza humana. En esta nueva ciencia la adopción del método experimental de razonar juega un rol central. Luego de ello, esbozaré en la misma sección la recepción y la interpretación de las doctrinas humeanas acerca del conocimiento humano en la epistemología contemporánea. Con ello se habrá delineado la visión estándar del autor del Treatise. Esta visión, sin embargo, no agota el pensamiento de nuestro autor, y debe ser considerada tan solo como la parte negativa de su filosofía. En el segundo capítulo, intentaré mostrar que la visión estándar de Hume, puede ser matizada por nuevas interpretaciones del proyecto de Hume, como una doctrina metafísica propositiva y no como un mero diagnosticador de los problemas del conocimiento. En ella, sostendré que es posible encontrar una teoría de la justificación fundada en una nueva comprensión de la naturaleza humana y fundamentalmente de la racionalidad.

Tesis para optar al grado de Magíster en Filosofía / El objetivo general de esta tesis es elucidar una vía de entrada hacia las relaciones entre la filosofía de Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) y la escuela fenomenológica. Se trata de una relación crítica. Nos acercamos a ella a través de la lectura y la evaluación de los análisis que tanto Husserl como Deleuze hicieron del pensamiento del filósofo empirista escocés David Hume. Husserl era un lector asiduo de Hume, cuyo peculiar empirismo representaba una amenaza interior para la fenomenología. De otra parte, Deleuze elaborará un pensamiento que se ha dado en llamar "empirismo trascendental". Por tanto, nos ha parecido que la conflictividad existente entre ambos pensadores debía de pasar por el examen del empirismo. El empirismo, sin embargo, tal como nos ha parecido leerlo en Deleuze, no es exactamente una "doctrina". Es más: la evaluación del empirismo, de esto que no es una doctrina, nos echará luces ahora, a la inversa, sobre cuál puede ser el sentido de un conflicto filosófico. De modo que los exámenes que llevamos a cabo cumplen un doble propósito: mapear el diferendo entre Deleuze y la fenomenología en clave de crítica, y esclarecer un motivo posible para el peculiar trascendentalismo deleuziano.

論文(碩士)--香港中文大學,1978. / Manuscript. / Includes bibliographical references: (leaves 185-188). / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue. / 前言 --- p.1-5 / Chapter 第一章 --- 畧論道德問題思考的幾種進路 --- p.6-28 / Chapter 第二章 --- 休謨的道德哲學 --- p.29-86 / Chapter 第三章 --- 休謨道德理論之困難 --- p.87-127 / Chapter 第四章 --- 休謨理論進路之限制 --- p.127-148 / Chapter 第五章 --- 先秦儒家(孔孟)對道德的形上意義之啟示 --- p.149-179 / Chapter 第六章 --- 總結 --- p.180-184 / 參考書目

A strong version of the Humean theory of motivation (HTM) that includes two theses is defended here. First, desire is necessary for action, and no mental states are necessary for action other than a desire and an appropriate means-end belief. Second, desires can be changed as the conclusion of reasoning only if a desire is among the premises of the reasoning. Those who hold that moral judgments are beliefs with intrinsic motivational force cannot accept HTM, even as a contingent truth, since HTM implies that no beliefs have intrinsic motivational force. Many of them argue that there are cases where HTM fails to explain how we deliberate. The response is to develop a novel account of desire and show that HTM provides superior explanations even in their cases. On this account, desire necessarily motivates action when combined with an appropriate means-end belief. Desire necessarily causes pleasure when our subjective probability of satisfaction increases or when we vividly imagine satisfaction, and likewise causes displeasure when the subjective probability of satisfaction decreases or when we vividly imagine dissatisfaction. It is contingently true that desire directs attention towards things one associates with its object, is made more violent by vivid sensory or imaginative representations of its object, comes in the two flavors of positive desire and aversion, and satisfies the second principle above. This account of desire helps HTM provides superior explanations of deliberation even in the cases that its opponents offer as counterexamples. In response to Darwall’s proposed counterexample to the second principle and some 20th century writers discussing the feeling of obligation, it is shown that Humeans can provide superior explanations of agents’ emotions in their cases. In Searle’s case of akrasia, Scanlon’s case of bracketing, and Schueler’s case of deliberation, it is shown that Humeans can build the structures of deliberation more simply than their opponents can. Against Korsgaard, it is argued that agents cannot choose the aims for which they act. / text

In recent years there has been an explosion of writing on David Hume. His scepticism, his writings on morality, politics, and religion, have all received substantial attention. What I attempt to do in this thesis is to suggest that his revolutionary contributions in all these fields can be better understood if we consider his attempt to found the sciences on the imagination. What little work there is on the imagination in Hume's writings is almost all concerned with Book I of the Treatise. As regards Book I, I suggest that Hume's overarching problem is to argue that belief is dependent on the imagination, whilst still keeping a contrast with the whims of the 'fancy'. He wants to disabuse us of the idea that we believe on account of reason; but he wants to distinguish the claims of science from the claims of poets. But I also examine why he thinks his explanation of the production of passions support his conclusions about belief. And I argue that his former account guides conclusions found in other genres. So for example, I examine certain essays and letters about politics, and his explanation of religious events in the History of England. Why do men falsely believe that they are distinguished from the animals through possessing reason? On the one hand Hume tries to explain the origin of the sciences; on the other hand, he tries to show how men have come to have a false conception of themselves. A central aim of the thesis is to bring out these themes through showing the use Hume makes of principles of the imagination. I pay special attention to Hume's attempt to argue that Christianity plays a major role in the sustaining of the false view.

In his Treatise of Human Nature, published in 1739, David Hume set out to scientifically comprehend human understanding, action, and personality in terms of the "experimental method of reasoning." He presented a naturalistic portrait of man which represented him as fundamentally determined to avoid pain and embrace pleasure. In this portrait a substantial place is provided for reason, but only as the "servant" of the passions. Only the passions were considered by Hume to be practical; they alone are the effective source of every impulse to act. Reason is merely theoretical; it is solely concerned with the provision of information for the passions. Hume recognized that his account of human nature must face two related problems. First, there is the matter of the common belief that reasoning is a practical activity; a belief not in keeping with Hume's conception of reason as merely theoretical. Second, the fact that persons' actions are influenced by moral ponsiderations implies that they often act in ways not designed to gratify their personal passions. Thus, moral phenomena seem to pose a threat to the hedonistic basis of Hume's theory of human nature. These two problems are related insofar as it is precisely in the case of moral actions that the common notion of practical reason traditionally operates. Hume sought to preserve the essential impracticality of reason in morals with the provision of a complex notion of "sympathy." l£ is the central purpose of this thesis to show that Hume's concept of "sympathy" fails to resolve the problems that it is addressed to. SECTION I: HUME'S THEORY OF ACTION IN THE TREATISE This section provides a sympathetic reading of Hume's account of the role of the passions and reason in the determination of human action. Two difficulties in this account—the concept of a "promptive" function of reason, and the notion of a "calm passion"—are critically considered and found to cohere with the general theory of the faculties in the Treatise. SECTION II: NATURALISM, DETERMINISM, AND VOLITION The naturalism of Hume's account of action has direct reference to the philosophical problems which cluster around the question of the freedom of the will. This section considers the implications of Hume's psychological determinism with a view to understanding more perfectly the detail of his theory of the faculties and action. Close attention is paid here to Hume's view that actions are "artificial," and it is concluded that he allowed a large and influential role for reason without directly threatening the purely theoretical function of the understanding. SECTION III: NATURALISM AND MORALS Hume regarded his theory of morals in the third book of the Treatise as a test and confirmation of his theory of action developed in the first two books. This section explicates Hume's view that moral judgments are affective perceptions rather than conclusions of reason. It is shown that the principle of "sympathy" operates at the center of the process of moral judgment. SECTION IV: SYMPATHY Hume designed the principle of sympathy to explain, in a manner consistent with his general theory of action, how persons can be naturally concerned for the interests of others with whom they have no prior affective connection. The central claim made is that persons are attuned to one another in such a way that there is an easy communication of passion between them. Thus, what is commonly interpreted as a moral "judgment" is really a peculiar feeling precipitated by a sympathy with the passions of others. It is this special feeling which issues from a process of sympathy which Hume identified as moral praise or blame. This final section of the thesis provides an extensive analysis of Hume's concept of "sympathy," and presents an argument aimed at demonstrating the failure of the concept to fulfill its intended role. It is suggested, in conclusion, that Hume fails to show that moral judgments and actions could be possible without the practical involvement of reason. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

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Desde sua primeira obra, David Hume anuncia ao leitor o projeto de constituição de uma ciência da natureza humana. O principal objetivo deste trabalho consiste em examinar os argumentos utilizados por Hume para construir as condições de possibilidade desse saber. / Since his first work David Hume announces his intentions to constitute a science of human nature. The main target of this thesis is to examine the arguments used by Hume to build the conditions of possibility of this field of knowledge.