An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (review)

Hume Studies Volume XXVI, Number 2, November 2000, pp. 344-346 DAVID HUME. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (Oxford Philosophical Texts). Edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pp. vi + 292. ISBN 0-19-875185-0, cloth, $29.95; ISBN 0-19875184 -2, paper, $12.95. Students and professional philosophers alike will surely welcome this new edition of Hume's An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. The text of this Oxford Philosophical Texts edition is taken from the 1998 Clarendon edition of the Enquiry, also edited by Beauchamp; the paperback is nicely printed on what appears to be a good quality of paper. It will provide a pleasant and affordable reading experience for a new generation of students. The special value of this edition, however, lies outside the text. In fact the Enquiry only occupies about half the bulk of the volume. Surrounding the text is a substantial body of editorial material. Before we get to the text, there is a lengthy (46 page) editor's introduction, which provides a good deal of background for reading Hume's moral theory. (The introduction will be discussed below, after we describe the rest of the book.) There follows a short explanation of the editorial basis of this edition. The next section is entitled "Supplementary Reading." It supplies information about Hume's other philosophical works, about early modern works in moral philosophy that influenced Hume, and a selection of books and articles about Hume's moral thought. The list is necessarily selective, but it would suffice to give students a strong foothold on the edifice of contemporary Hume scholarship . Especially valuable is the listing of secondary sources by topic, such as "Passion, Sentiments, and Moral Psychology," "Reason and its Limitations," or "Benevolence, Humanity, and Sympathy." Somewhat advanced students will appreciate this quick guide to engaging topics. Following the text, we find another extensive body of editorial material. First there is a section of annotations, which are intended to explain particular passages in the text that might otherwise prove impenetrable to the twenty -first-century reader. Tiny daggers are placed in the text to indicate each point where there is a corresponding annotation to be found after the text. The annotations are conveniently divided into sections that follow the divisions of the Enquiry. The annotations include translations of all the French, Latin, or Greek quotations and in many instances supply information about relatively obscure works Hume mentions. It is easy to find out who Darius and Xerxes were, or to learn what counts as a cardinal virtue for Cicero. After the annotations, there is a glossary that explains the numerous terms in the text that had different meanings in Hume's day. In many cases the words explained here have fallen out of use or are no longer used in quite the sense needed for understanding Hume's thought. Words that appear in this glossary are not marked in the text. Hume Studies Book Reviews 345 Next there is a section of references, which includes works cited by Hume either in the text or its notes, as well as works cited by the editor in the introduction or the annotations. The last section of the book is the index, which covers the entire book (including the editorial material). There is one other feature of this new text that deserves special mention. The editor has numbered the paragraphs in each section. The number appears in the left margin at the head of each paragraph. The idea is to set up a universal reference system, so that one can make precise references to the text without using page numbers. It is easy to find the sixth paragraph of section 5, for example, even if one has some other edition of the text. Now we may turn to a more detailed examination of the editor's introduction . Here our main focus will be on the welfare of the students who will make use of this material. Beauchamp's editorial work is designed to assist students (a) by helping to clarify the context in which this Enquiry was written and (b) by interpreting some of the main lines of thought. The extensive...