Hume''s Epistemology in the Treatise - A Veritistic Interpretation

Frederick F. Schmitt offers a new account of Hume's epistemology in A Treatise of Human Nature, which alternately manifests scepticism, empiricism, and naturalism. Critics have emphasised one of these positions over the others, but Schmitt argues that they can be reconciled by tracing them to an underlying epistemology of knowledge and probability.

About the author

Frederick F. Schmitt is Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University. He specialises in epistemology, metaphysics, and the history of those subjects, especially British empiricism. He has worked on reliability and naturalistic epistemology, as well as internalism and externalism about justified belief; social epistemology, especially testimony and group justification (editing a volume on the subject, Socializing Epistemology, Rowman & Littlefield, 1994); and the metaphysics of collectivities (editing Socializing Metaphysics, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003). He is the author of an introductory book, Truth: A Primer (Westview Press, 1995), and editor of Theories of Truth (Blackwell, 2004). He has written articles on the epistemology of Descartes and Peirce. Recently, he has examined the epistemology of cognitive capacities and dispositions (specifically, intelligence and and curiosity) and the philosophy of David Hume. He is an associate editor of Episteme.

Summary

Frederick F. Schmitt offers a new account of Hume's epistemology in A Treatise of Human Nature, which alternately manifests scepticism, empiricism, and naturalism. Critics have emphasised one of these positions over the others, but Schmitt argues that they can be reconciled by tracing them to an underlying epistemology of knowledge and probability.

Additional text

Schmitt's book is very thoughtful and rich with insight.

Product details

• Authors: Frederick F. Schmitt, Frederick F. (Indiana University) Schmitt, Schmitt Frederick F.
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 16.01.2014
• EAN: 9780199683116
• ISBN: 978-0-19-968311-6
• No. of pages: 444
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Philosophy > General, dictionaries; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; History of Ideas, PHILOSOPHY / Epistemology, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / General, PHILOSOPHY / History & Surveys / Medieval, HISTORY / Social History, Philosophical traditions and schools of thought, History of Western philosophy, Philosophy: epistemology & theory of knowledge, Western philosophy: Medieval & Renaissance, c 500 to c 1600, Philosophy: epistemology and theory of knowledge, Medieval Western philosophy