Category Archives: Philosophy

James Boswell on the Death of David Hume

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James Boswell visited David Hume on July 7, 1776, about seven weeks before Hume died. Boswell later wrote an account of their meeting. Some excerpts:

I found him alone, in a reclining posture in his drawing-room. He was lean, ghastly, and quite of an earthy appearance. He was dressed in a suit of grey cloth with white metal buttons, and a kind of scratch wig. He was quite different from the plump figure which he used to present. He had before him Dr. Campbell’s Philosophy of Rhetoric. He seemed to be placid and even cheerful. He said he was just approaching to his end….

I know not how I contrived to get the subject of immortality introduced. He said he never had entertained any belief in religion since he began to read [John] Locke and [Samuel] Clarke. I asked him if he was not religious when he was young. He said he was….

He then said flatly that the morality of every religion was bad, and, I really thought, was not jocular when he said that when he heard a man was religious, he concluded he was a rascal, though he had known some instances of very good men being religious. This was just an extravagant reverse of the common remark as to infidels.

I had a strong curiosity to be satisfied if he persisted in disbelieving a future state even when he had death before his eyes. I was persuaded from what he now said, and from his manner of saying it, that he did persist. I asked him if it was not possible that there might be a future state. He answered it was possible that a piece of coal put upon the fire would not burn; and he added that it was a most unreasonable fancy that we should exist for ever….

Mr. Lauder, his surgeon, came in for a little, and Mr. Mure, the Baron’s son, for another small interval. He was, as far as I could judge, quite easy with both. He said he had no pain, but was wasting away. I left him with impressions which disturbed me for some time.

http://digital.nls.uk/scotlandspages/timeline/17762.html

Adam Smith on the Death of David Hume

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Adam Smith, the economist and philosopher, and David Hume, the philosopher and historian, were very close friends. In 1776, after Hume died, Smith wrote a letter describing his friend’s attitude toward his coming death. It is controversial whether Hume was an atheist, but it is clear that he maintained his skepticism regarding religion until the end.

Below are excerpts from Smith’s letter:

His cheerfulness was so great, and his conversation and amusements run so much in their usual strain, that, notwithstanding all bad symptoms, many people could not believe he was dying. “I shall tell your friend, Colonel Edmondstone,” said Doctor Dundas to him one day, “that I left you much better, and in a fair way of recovery.” “Doctor,” said he, “as I believe you would not choose to tell any thing but the truth, you had better tell him, that I am dying as fast as my enemies, if I have any, could wish, and as easily and cheerfully as my best friends could desire.”

When he was reading, a few days before, Lucian’s Dialogues of the Dead, among all the excuses which are alleged to Charon for not entering readily into his boat, he could not find one that fitted him; he had no house to finish, he had no daughter to provide for, he had no enemies upon whom he wished to revenge himself. “I could not well imagine”, said he, “what excuse I could make to Charon in order to obtain a little delay. I have done every thing of consequence which I ever meant to do; and I could at no time expect to leave my relations and friends in a better situation than that in which I am now likely to leave them. I therefore have all reason to die contented.”

He then diverted himself with inventing several jocular excuses, which he supposed he might make to Charon, and with imagining the very surly answers which it might suit the character of Charon to return to them. “Upon further consideration,” said he, “I thought I might say to him, Good Charon, I have been correcting my works for a new edition. Allow me a little time, that I may see how the public receives the alterations.” But Charon would answer, “When you have seen the effect of these, you will be for making other alterations. There will be no end of such excuses; so, honest friend, please step into the boat.”

But I might still urge, “Have a little patience, good Charon; I have been endeavoring to open the eyes of the public. If I live a few years longer, I may have the satisfaction of seeing the downfall of some of the prevailing systems of superstition.” But Charon would then lose all temper and decency. “You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many hundred years. Do you fancy I will grant you a lease for so long a term? Get into the boat this instant, you lazy loitering rogue.”

Thus died our most excellent and never to be forgotten friend; concerning whose philosophical opinions men will, no doubt, judge variously, every one approving or condemning them, according as they happen to coincide or disagree with his own; but concerning whose character and conduct there can scarce be a difference of opinion…. Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.

I ever am, dear Sir, Most affectionately yours, Adam Smith

http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic880131.files/Adam.Smith.to.W.Strahan.Death.of.Hume.pdf

Sometimes Things Just Work Out

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I took our old car in for service at a local garage yesterday. It needed a couple of things done. The guy at the garage told me the work would cost about $450. He added that he was really backed up, so the car wouldn’t be ready until the end of the day. He seemed a little stressed out.

As I was walking home, it occurred to me that I really didn’t need the car right away. I figured it would be a nice gesture if I called the mechanic and told him he could finish the work the next day if he wanted.

It also occurred to me that it might be a good thing to do this guy a favor. I always feel like I’m at the mercy of car mechanics. Maybe this one would reciprocate by giving me a break when he wrote up the bill. 

So when I picked up the car today, it was very nice to see that the mechanic had charged me $250, not $450.

The world doesn’t seem so screwed up when you can do well by doing good (even if  you aren’t being completely selfless at the time).

A Universe Unto Ourselves

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Professor David Barash published an article in the NY Times recently discussing how parasites make use of and even manipulate their host’s behavior, often in remarkable and creepy ways. He asks whether we humans are likewise fulfilling the needs of the tiny creatures within us (and the needs of our genes, which aren’t tiny creatures but lists of instructions).

Professor Barash concludes with what he says is a heretical possibility: “Maybe there is no one in charge — no independent, self-serving, order-issuing homunculus”. But this isn’t such a heretical idea, at least not a new one. Philosophers, most famously David Hume, have long questioned whether there is a self, a single self-conscious mental entity that is “me”. Hume claimed that all he was conscious of was “a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement” (A Treatise of Human Nature, Book I, Part IV, Section VI).

What everyone should agree on is that we are biological organisms, living things composed of trillions of much smaller living things. The human body is composed of roughly 10 trillion living cells. In addition, we provide living space to roughly 100 trillion other life forms, mostly bacteria, mostly in our intestines. Each one of us is a community. Somehow the operation of this community results in the almost overwhelming conviction that we have a single seat of consciousness, observing the world and controlling our actions.

How this happens is still a mystery. But it might change our perspective on who we are if we keep in mind that every action we perform, every thought we have, reflects the actions of a small universe of other living things.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/opinion/sunday/whos-in-charge-inside-your-head.html?ref=opinion

Shameful, But True

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Many philosophers, maybe most philosophers, think that consciousness is a very difficult problem, possibly the hardest philosophical problem of all. How can something physical (our brains) give rise to something that seems to be non-physical (consciousness)? And why are we conscious at all? Couldn’t we do everything we do without being conscious?

I once told a professor that I didn’t understand why consciousness is thought to be such a hard problem. He said I hadn’t talked to the right people.

Because confession is supposedly good for the soul (and our consciousness?), and because I bought a webcam, I have now confessed my shame at:

http://philosophershaming.tumblr.com/