Hume in 90 Minutes

By Paul Strathern

Book Overview

"Each of these little books is witty and dramatic and creates a sense of time, place, and character....I cannot think of a better way to introduce oneself and one's friends to Western civilization."--Katherine A. Powers, Boston Globe.
"Well-written, clear and informed, they have a breezy wit about them....I find them hard to stop reading."--Richard Bernstein, New York Times.
"Witty, illuminating, and blessedly concise."--Jim Holt, Wall Street Journal.
These brief and enlightening explorations of our greatest thinkers bring their ideas to life in entertaining and accessible fashion. Philosophical thought is deciphered and made comprehensive and interesting to almost everyone. Far from being a novelty, each book is a highly refined appraisal of the philosopher and his work, authoritative and clearly presented.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1566632404
• ISBN13: 9781566632409
• Release Date: August 2007
• Publisher: Ivan R. Dee Publisher
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.0" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Humane and human Hume kills off Philosophy

I have read a good share of Strathern's short works on the great philosophers. I have the feeling that the more interesting the life and character of the philosopher discussed the better the volume. For some reason Hume is for me a very interesting, and admirable character even though religiously I am totally on the other side of the fence. i.e. Strathern claims that Hume is the first philosopher who has the guts to come and say out and out that he is an atheist. I am a person who believes that without God not only I, but all of Humanity is lost. In any case Strathern does a very good job of describing Hume's demolition of the idea of causality(There is sequence, before and after, without necessary connection between them) of continuity of objects, of induction( The fact that there has been night and day, night and day for so long as we know does not necessarily mean that the sun will come up tomorrow). He also does a wonderful job of providing the background to Hume's life in eighteenth century England. Hume whose greatest passion despite him in later years belonging to a group called 'The Eaterei' and being immensely corpulent was for ' literary fame' His first great work 'The Treatise on Human Nature' contained his major ideas but did not bring him the prize he sought.But by the time he wrote an'Enquiry on Human Understanding' he attained it. Also the author of a popular History of England Hume was that rare creature who achieves in his life precisely what he wanted to, and was famed, honored, celebrated and justly so. This short work is a very good account of the life and clear exposition of those ideas, ideas which will make us forever think twice about, whether our world, and we ourselves are ' real 'or not. But of course ' we are' and ' I wrote this review' and someone named 'Paul Strathern wrote a very good book ' about Hume.