Inventing the commercial consumer : an historical study of Books I and II of David Hume's 'Treatise of Human Nature'
Citation:
Christopher J. Finlay, 'Inventing the commercial consumer : an historical study of Books I and II of David Hume's 'Treatise of Human Nature'', [thesis], Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of History, 2001, pp 247Download Item:
Abstract:
The aim of the thesis is to present a contextualised interpretation of David Hume’s theory of the individual in Books I and II of A Treatise of Human Nature. The Introduction (Chapter 1) argues that insufficient attention has been paid to the relationship between Hume’s philosophical theory and its original practical and social context. Generally, historical study has looked at the intellectual-discursive context in order to find the origins of Hume’s philosophical concerns and ideas. The thesis supplements these approaches by tracing relationships between the content of Hume’s theory and the actual practices of individuals as he found them in contemporary society. Chapter 2 examines Hume’s social experience at the time when he conceived and wrote the Treatise. His social background, his need for a professional 'settlement', and documents on his peregrinations through Britain and France are examined in order to establish a profile of the type of social context and practices that he encountered, and of his attitude towards them. A range of social contexts in which the consumption of luxury goods became linked to the enhancement of visible social status for individuals is found to have developed in Britain at this time, with particularly English habits being imitated by the Scottish lowland gentry and the lawyers in Edinburgh. Hume's personal worries about his own social and financial status, and his experience of the mechanisms of social mobility in different locations, made him an acute observer of the role of consumption in contemporary society. Chapter 3 analyses meta-theoretical and methodological remarks found in Hume's works from the late 1730s and early 1740s in order to clarify Hume's ideas on the relationship between philosophy and common life. It is established that he consciously derived his theoretical results from observations of people in their common practices as he found them in his own experience. Hume also made it clear that he believed that philosophy needed to engage constructively with the participants in common life in order to generate meaningful conclusions. Therefore, Hume's philosophy in the Treatise was intended to be based on and pertinent to the practices typical of contemporary "common life". The theory of the will in the Treatise is analysed in Chapter 4 in order to clarify the relationship between thought and practice in Hume’s theory of the individual. It is found that in Hume's view the understanding carries out activities generated by the direct passions and is incapable of acting on its own. These activities are designed to evaluate the capacity of objects to produce pleasure, the capacities of people surrounding the individual, and the capacity of the individual himself to intervene in given situations on behalf of the direct passions. The constructive parts of the theory of understanding, primarily those concerned with causal induction, are therefore understood to be guided towards practical ends governed by desire. The fifth chapter explores the treatment of the indirect passions, pride and humility, love and hatred, etc., in order to establish clearer insights into the kinds of practical purposes towards which the Humean individual is driven, and the manner in which his capacities are used to achieve his aims. The indirect passions thus supplement the motivation of the direct passions, orientating the human individual towards objects and activities which will enhance his social status in relation to those who surround him. Hume’s analysis of these passions focuses primarily on the kinds of objects that cause them. The paradigmatic relationships through which the indirect passions are generated are those between the individual and his property, and between the individual and those who surround him. A key desire of the human agent described by Hume, is to be seen to acquire objects that are known to provide pleasure, and in particular, to be seen to have to power to acquire such objects. Thus, in Hume’s analysis, money takes on a considerable importance. The capacity of the understanding to work out causal relationships is found in this chapter to be required by the individual in order to comprehend the relationships between property and pleasure, the individual and his property, and riches and the objects which they can purchase. Chapter 6 of the thesis narrates the central operation of the understanding, presented in Book I part 3, and points out the connections between this activity and the other aspects of the individual described by Hume. The manner in which the Humean individual forms the beliefs that were seen to operate in the practices relating to desire, acquisition, possession and consumption is presented.
Author: Finlay, Christopher J.
Advisor:
Kelly, PatrickQualification name:
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)Publisher:
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland). Department of HistoryNote:
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History, Ph.D., Ph.D. Trinity College DublinMetadata
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