"AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

The Internet Wiretap online edition of

AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING
HUMAN UNDERSTANDING

by
DAVID HUME

Harvard Classics Volume 37
Copyright 1910 P.F. Collier & Son

Prepared by


About the online edition.

This was scanned from the 1910 edition and mechanically
checked against a commercial copy of the text from CDROM.
Differences were corrected against the paper edition. The
text itself is thus a highly accurate rendition. The
footnotes were entered manually.

This text is in the PUBLIC DOMAIN, released August 1993.

SECTION I
OF THE DIFFERENT SPECIES OF PHILOSOPHY.

MORAL philosophy, or the science of human nature,
may be treated after two different manners; each
of which has its peculiar merit, and may contribute
to the entertainment, instruction, and reformation of man-
kind. The one considers man chiefly as born for action;
and as influenced in his measures by taste and sentiment;
pursuing one object, and avoiding another, according to
the value which these objects seem to possess, and accord-
ing to the light in which they present themselves. As vir-
tue, of all objects, is allowed to be the most valuable, this
species of philosophers paint her in the most amiable
colours; borrowing all helps from poetry and eloquence, and
treating their subject in an easy and obvious manner, and
such as is best fitted to please the imagination, and engage
the affections. They select the most striking observations
and instances from common life; place opposite characters
in a proper contrast; and alluring us into the paths of virtue
by the views of glory and happiness, direct our steps in
these paths by the soundest precepts and most illustrious
examples. They make us feel the difference between vice
and virtue; they excite and regulate our sentiments; and

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