Simon Blackburn, July 2013:
"...I admire a great many of his (David Hume's) doctrines. The other, perhaps more personal, is that I very much admire and love him as a man. He lived an admirable life and a warm, generous spirit breathes through all his writings. I find that very attractive..."
Amartya Sen, Dec 14 2011:
"David Hume was born three hundred years ago, in 1711. The world has changed radically since his time, and yet many of his ideas and admonitions remain deeply relevant, though rather neglected, in the contemporary world. These Humean insights include the central role of information and knowledge for adequate ethical scrutiny, and the importance of reasoning without disowning the pertinence of powerful sentiments. They also include such practical concerns as our responsibilities to those who are located far away from us elsewhere on the globe, or in the future.
Hume's influence on the nature and reach of modern thinking has been monumental. From epistemology to practical reason, from aesthetics to religion, from political economy to philosophy, from social and cultural studies to history and historiography, the intellectual world was transformed by the enlightening power of his mind. In his own time, Hume’s ideas encountered considerable resistance from more orthodox thinkers. One result of this was his being rejected for philosophy chairs first at Edinburgh University and then at the University of Glasgow. Yet the influence of Hume’s ideas has grown steadily and powerfully over time. Indeed, as Nicholas Phillipson remarks in his insightful biography David Hume: The Philosopher as Historian: “David Hume’s reputation has never been higher.”..."
I have already rued the fact that the late Vinda Karandikar (विंदा करंदीकर) didn't choose David Hume as one of the eight philosophers he chose to showcase in his book ‘ASHTADARSHANE’ (अष्टदर्शने), 2003.
More I read about Hume, more strongly the feeling grows.
John Gray writes:
"...(Immanuel) Kant wrote that David Hume aroused him from dogmatic slumber. He was certainly shaken by the great eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher’s profound scepticism. Traditional metaphysicians claimed to demonstrate the existence of God, the freedom of the will and the immortality of the soul. In Hume’s view, we cannot even know that the external world really exists. Indeed we do not even know that we ourselves exist, since all we find when we look within is a bundle of sensations. Hume concluded that, knowing nothing, we must follow the ancient Greek Sceptics, and rely on nature and habit to guide our lives..."
('Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals', 2002)
And if I still wanted one more reason for the loss, here is one.
The Economist dated Jan 27 2011:
"...If Mr Miller had included the sunny and admirable David Hume and some other less troubled souls in his portraits, his gallery of philosophers could have been brighter overall..."
Artist: Henry Martin, The New Yorker, 5 November 1979
My caption:
Present- Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson, Charvak (Missing: David Hume and also George Santayana)
"...I admire a great many of his (David Hume's) doctrines. The other, perhaps more personal, is that I very much admire and love him as a man. He lived an admirable life and a warm, generous spirit breathes through all his writings. I find that very attractive..."
Amartya Sen, Dec 14 2011:
"David Hume was born three hundred years ago, in 1711. The world has changed radically since his time, and yet many of his ideas and admonitions remain deeply relevant, though rather neglected, in the contemporary world. These Humean insights include the central role of information and knowledge for adequate ethical scrutiny, and the importance of reasoning without disowning the pertinence of powerful sentiments. They also include such practical concerns as our responsibilities to those who are located far away from us elsewhere on the globe, or in the future.
Hume's influence on the nature and reach of modern thinking has been monumental. From epistemology to practical reason, from aesthetics to religion, from political economy to philosophy, from social and cultural studies to history and historiography, the intellectual world was transformed by the enlightening power of his mind. In his own time, Hume’s ideas encountered considerable resistance from more orthodox thinkers. One result of this was his being rejected for philosophy chairs first at Edinburgh University and then at the University of Glasgow. Yet the influence of Hume’s ideas has grown steadily and powerfully over time. Indeed, as Nicholas Phillipson remarks in his insightful biography David Hume: The Philosopher as Historian: “David Hume’s reputation has never been higher.”..."
I have already rued the fact that the late Vinda Karandikar (विंदा करंदीकर) didn't choose David Hume as one of the eight philosophers he chose to showcase in his book ‘ASHTADARSHANE’ (अष्टदर्शने), 2003.
More I read about Hume, more strongly the feeling grows.
John Gray writes:
"...(Immanuel) Kant wrote that David Hume aroused him from dogmatic slumber. He was certainly shaken by the great eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher’s profound scepticism. Traditional metaphysicians claimed to demonstrate the existence of God, the freedom of the will and the immortality of the soul. In Hume’s view, we cannot even know that the external world really exists. Indeed we do not even know that we ourselves exist, since all we find when we look within is a bundle of sensations. Hume concluded that, knowing nothing, we must follow the ancient Greek Sceptics, and rely on nature and habit to guide our lives..."
('Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals', 2002)
And if I still wanted one more reason for the loss, here is one.
The Economist dated Jan 27 2011:
"...If Mr Miller had included the sunny and admirable David Hume and some other less troubled souls in his portraits, his gallery of philosophers could have been brighter overall..."
Artist: Henry Martin, The New Yorker, 5 November 1979
My caption:
Present- Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Bergson, Charvak (Missing: David Hume and also George Santayana)
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