HUME, CRITICAL EDITIONS, COMMENTARIES, AND BIOGRAPHIES: IMPARTIALITY AND ITS RISKS

Abstract

Since the time of Socrates, there has been no shortage of important philosophers who have not written anything. Only Hume, however, left us a story of his life, before publishing anything. The intellectual bibliography of James Harris is a remarkable feat and A.M. Stewart is the author of essays of exceptional value. However, the author of this paper disagrees with both on the ge­nesis of his Treatise of human nature. In his critical edition, David Fate Norton has left us 300 pages of references to texts that may have inspired the Trea­­tise. The author discovers some serious gaps. Similar is the case of a note by Beauchamp on sympathy in Hume’s Inquiry concerning the Principle of Morals.