David Hume's Essays, which were written and published at various junctures between 1741 and his death in 1776, offer his most accessible and often most profound statements on a range of subjects including politics, philosophy, aesthetics, and political economy. In Hume's lifetime, the readable and wide-ranging Essays acquired considerable fame throughout Europe and North America, influencing the writings of such diverse figures as James Madison and William Paley, yet they have not been given the same scholarly attention as his more famous philosophical works. This Critical Guide provides a series of in-depth studies of the Essays, as well as an account of the state of scholarship on the work. Thirteen chapters examine the Essays from historical, political and philosophical perspectives, with the aim of restoring the work to its rightful place among Hume's works and in intellectual history more broadly.
Introduction Max Skjönsberg and Felix Waldmann; Part I. Reception: 1. The reception of Hume's essays in eighteenth-century Britain Mark G. Spencer and Mikko Tolonen; 2. The reception of Hume's essays in eighteenth-century Germany Lina Weber; 3. The reception of Hume's essays in eighteenth-century France Laura Nicolì; Part II. Philosophy: 4. Hume's essays as Philosophy Margaret Watkins; 5. 'The sentiments of sects': Epicurean, Stoic, Platonist, Sceptic Tim Stuart-Buttle; 6. Aesthetics and the arts in Hume's essays Timothy M. Costelloe; 7. Religion, anticlericalism and the worldly paths to happiness in Hume's essays R. J. W. Mills; Part III. Politics: 8. Reconstructing Oceana: Hume's 'idea of a perfect commonwealth' Danielle Charette; 9. 'One of the most difficult problems, that can be met with': Hume on political parties Max Skjönsberg; 10. Hume on eloquence and the failings of English Political Oratory Ross Carroll; 11. Hume and population Sylvana Tomaselli; 12. Hume on economic inequality Margaret Schabas; 13. Hume and the politics of Money Tom Hopkins; Bibliography; Index.
Max Skjönsberg is Assistant Professor of Humanities in the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida. He is the author of The Persistence of Party: Ideas of Harmonious Discord in Eighteenth-Century Britain (Cambridge, 2021), and the editor of Catharine Macaulay's Political Writings (Cambridge, 2023). Felix Waldmann is a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. He is the editor of Further Letters of David Hume (2014) and he is editing the Clarendon Edition of David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and Occasional Writings.
