Hume On Art, Emotion, And Superstition Av Amyas Merivale

<P>This book offers the first comprehensive critical study of David Hume¿s <I>Four Dissertations </I>of 1757, containing the <I>Natural History of Religion</I>, the <I>Dissertation on the Passions</I>, and the two essays <I>Of Tragedy </I>and <I>Of the Standard of Taste</I>. The author defends two important claims. The first is that these four works were not published together merely for convenience, but that they form a tightly integrated set, unified by the subject matter of the passions. The second is that the theory of the passions they jointly present is significantly different¿indeed, significantly <I>improved</I>¿from that of the earlier <I>Treatise</I>. Most strikingly, it is anti-egoist and anti-hedonist about motivation, where the <I>Treatise </I>had espoused a Lockean hedonism and egoism. It is also more cognitivist in its analysis of the passions themselves, and demonstrates a greater awareness of the limits of sympathy and of the varieties of human taste. This book is an i