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Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author — David Hume — John Shaqi

Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author

David Hume · en

OF KNOWLEDGE AND PROBABILITY.
    Of Knowledge
    Of Probability, and of the Idea of Cause and Effect
    Why a Cause is always necessary
    Of the component parts of our Reasonings concerning Cause and
      effect
    Of the Impressions of the Senses and Memory
    Of the Inference from the Impression to the Ideax
    Of the Nature of the Idea or Belief
    Of the Causes of Belief
    Of the Effects of other Relations and other Habits
    Of the Influence of Belief
    Of the Probability of Chances
    Of the Probability of Causes
    Of unphilosophical Probability
    Of the Idea of Necessary Connexion
    Rules by which to judge of Causes and Effectsx
    Of the Reason of Animals

    PART IV.

    OF THE SCEPTICAL AND OTHER SYSTEMS OF PHILOSOPHY.

    Of Scepticism with regard to Reason
    Of Scepticism with regard to the Sensesx
    Of the Ancient Philosophy
    Of the Modern Philosophyx
    Of the Immateriality of the Soul
    Of Personal Identity
    Conclusion of this Book




LIFE OF THE AUTHOR BY HIMSELF.




MY OWN LIFE.


It is difficult for a man to speak long of himself without vanity;
therefore, I shall be short. It may be thought an instance of vanity
that I pretend at all to write my life; but this Narrative shall
contain little more than the History of my Writings; as, indeed, almost
all my life has been spent in literary pursuits and occupations. The
first success of most of my writings was not such as to be an object of
vanity.

I was born the 26th of April 1711, old style, at Edinburgh. I was of a
good family, both by father and mother. My father's family is a branch
of the Earl of Home's or Hume's; and my ancestors had been proprietors
of the estate, which my brother possesses, for several generations. My
mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer, President of the College of
Justice; the title of Lord Halkerton came by succession to her brother.

My family, however, was not rich; and, being myself a younger brother,
my patrimony, according to the mode of my country, was of course very
slender. My father, who passed for a man of parts, died when I was
an infant, leaving me, with an elder brother and a sister, under the
care of our mother, a woman of singular merit, who, though young and
handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating of
her children. I passed through the ordinary course of education with
success, and was seized very early with a passion for literature, which
has been the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my
enjoyments. My studious disposition, my sobriety, and my industry, gave
my family a notion that the law was a proper profession for me; but I
found an unsurmountable aversion to every thing but the pursuits of
philosophy and general learning; and while they fancied I was poring
upon Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the authors which I was
secretly devouring.