Hume's four essays on happiness and their place in the move from morals to politics

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Abstract

This paper relates the content of David Hume's essays "The Epicurean", "The Stoic", "The Platonist" and "The Sceptic" to their form. All four essays take as their subject happiness and how it is to be achieved. They can be seen as a re-staging of Cicero's 'De finibus', but without a reasoned conclusion about the nature of human happiness. Hume means to show the pointlessness of expecting from philosophy a means of showing human beings how to achieve felicity. Hume's contemporaries shared with the Greeks and Romans the belief that philosophy's highest vocation is to tell us how to be happy. These essays are part of Hume's project of reorientating practical philosophy away from ethical issues and towards politics.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationNew Essays on David Hume
EditorsE Mazza, E Ronchetti
PublisherFrancoAngeli
Pages223-235
ISBN (Print)978-88-464-8336-2
Publication statusPublished - 2007

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