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  • Hume: An Intellectual Biography by James A. Harris
  • Jeremy Black
James A. Harris, Hume: An Intellectual Biography (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015). Pp. 634. $55.00.

A stimulating intellectual biography, this ably researched and well-written study will be important not only to those specifically interested in Hume, the Enlightenment, philosophy, and history, but also to anyone interested in the potential of an intellectual biography and in the methodology of how best to set about constructing one. Harris, Reader in the History of Philosophy at the University of St Andrews, lays out his stall neatly. He attempts to give a complete picture of Hume’s ideas as they are expressed in the full range of his writings on philosophical, political, historical, economic, literary, and religious subjects. The focus is almost exclusively on published texts, as little else is available: no journal, no lecture notes, and relatively few letters. However, Harris’s book is far more than a summary account of what Hume wrote. Instead, his works are carefully related to their context; therefore, their interplay with the writings of others emerges clearly.

Among the major themes that are readily apparent are the value of the essay form, the importance of Hume’s Continental experiences, the multiple significances of religion, and Hume’s ability to apply his philosophical agenda to a range of relevant contemporary topics. The latter range from the freedom of the will and the role of utility in moral judgment, to the politics of party and the understanding of the balance of trade. Harris employs the category of “man of letters” both to characterize Hume’s intellectual career as a whole and to address the question of how to deal with the relation between Hume the philosopher and Hume the historian.

Hume’s case for philosophy was that it was a means of understanding the world that human beings fashion for themselves; he then applied this style of reasoning to history. The latter, as Harris shows in his skillful and important dissection of Hume’s History of Great Britain, became more difficult than had been anticipated, with Hume feeling that he had to move backward in time in order to explain the turmoil of the seventeenth century: first, to consider the decay of feudalism and the concomitant increase of the political power of the House of Commons, as well as the impact of the Reformation; then all the way back to the Roman Conquest. As a result, it was necessary for Hume to engage with the medieval legacy.

Hume assumed that his ideal reader had already read the standard histories and thus would be impressed by how he played them off against one another, enabling him to make Tory points against Whig orthodoxy. At the same time, he did not believe that his argument could be read as Tory in its motivations. For Hume, endless constitutional change precluded the existence of a single, essentially English, English constitution. Although their methods and stances were in many respects very different, there are interesting parallels with John Wesley’s history of England. In particular, it was not easy for either man to shape an account that met the requirements of consistency while avoiding the display of what might appear to be unfortunate political allegiances. Moreover, each devoted much space to the clash between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots. Harris does not make the comparison with Wesley, and other contemporary historians such as Richard Rolt are also ignored, which is a pity. [End Page 132]

The History made Hume a lot of money and, for contemporaries, he was indeed largely a historian and not a philosopher. As Harris shows, Hume only wrote short and minor pieces during the remaining thirteen years of his life. Nevertheless, these works are carefully assessed, with Harris finding a lack of sympathy for much of what animated the philosophes and the Encyclopaedists. This is a first-rate work that deserves much attention. [End Page 133]

Jeremy Black
University of Exeter
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