What can we say we know with certainty? What does it mean to say that we know something? How does knowledge differ from belief? Can an exploration of basic philosophical questions, such as How do we know what we know? and What are the limits of our understanding? inform our thinking not just on intellectual issues, but on broader cultural challenges as well?

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David Hume - An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Five Thursday Afternoons, March 6 - May 15

 

David Hume (7 May 1711 – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who was best known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical skepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Hume rejected the existence of innate ideas, concluding that all human knowledge derives solely from experience. This places his thinking with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley. Over five Thursday afternoon online seminars the series will cover:

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March 6: pages 1-25 (Sections 1 to 4)

March 20: pages 25-53 (Sections 5 to 7)

April 3: No seminar 

April 17: pages 53-72 (Sections 8 and 9)

May 1: pages 72-102 (Sections 10 and 11)

May 15: pages 102-138 (Section 12, A Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend in Edinburgh, and An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature)

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Join us as we discuss this foundational work from Hume. This series continues a broader series on epistemology. All are welcome. Please join us even if this will be your first seminar in the series.