Hume: An Intellectual Biography

Hume: An Intellectual Biography by Harris, James A.. Hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780521837255.

This is the first book to provide a comprehensive overview of the entire career of one of Britains greatest men of letters. It sets in biographical and historical context all of Humes works, from A Treatise of Human Nature to The History of England, bringing to light the major influences on the course of Humes intellectual development, and paying careful attention to the differences between the wide variety of literary genres with which Hume experimented. The major events in Humes life are fully described, but the main focus is on Humes intentions as a philosophical analyst of human nature, politics, commerce, English history, and religion. Careful attention is paid to Humes intellectual relations with his contemporaries. The goal is to reveal Hume as a man intensely concerned with the realization of an ideal of open-minded, objective, rigorous, dispassionate dialogue about all the principal questions faced by his age.