Hume’s Essays Review

To start my reading of David Hume, I chose a collection of 21 works, including a collection of essays, as well as a handful of his key treatises, such as his Treatise on Human Nature.  I had every intention of reading the entire collection at once, but after reading the included essays, I decided to postpone reading the remainder in favor of providing a review for the essays.  Plus, having read those essays, I am no longer certain that I will bother with reading the remaining pieces in the collection.  Considering his persistent influence and stature in philosophy, perhaps his treatises are of a higher caliber than his essays.

An Enlightenment philosopher, Hume wrote on many of the same topics that preoccupied philosophers of the time (and adjacent times), including John Locke and Immanuel Kant.  In particular, most of the essays included in the collection I read were political in nature, but unlike Locke’s Two Treatises of Government, they do not attempt to derive government from first principles, which may be part of why I found them to be less insightful.  What is the point of philosophy if not to think things through from first principles?  The essays, therefore, read more like editorials that invoke some philosophy than they do like philosophical essays.

This is not to say that there is nothing to be gained from reading Hume’s essays.  Those that I read are particularly apt in their descriptions and warnings about the dangers of factionalism in democratic systems of government.  Indeed, the history of democracies bears out this view, with many throughout history failing or deteriorating due to rampant factionalism and rife internal divisions.  Perhaps it was Hume’s influence that led Washington to warn against the dangers of factionalism in his farewell address, and Benjamin Franklin may well have been referring in part to the same danger when he said that the new America had a “republic, if [they] can keep it.”

While I tend to avoid discussing politics on this site, except in the most abstract sense, it seems unavoidable to allude here to the present US political situation, which is surely the kind of rampant factionalism to which Hume referred.  In one of his essays, Hume warns that factionalism, unchecked, leads democracies inevitably to either anarchy or tyranny.  Deriding the possibility of this happening to the US requires a willful ignorance of historical perspective, for our democracy is not so very old as to be proven definitively the exception to the rule.  In the scheme of nations, the US is quite young, and past performance is not a guarantee of future results.  Democracy requires the active and thoughtful engagement of the people, which is not to be confused with the participation of the populous.

Aside from his insights into factionalism, the other significant takeaway from Hume’s essays is one of perspective, that reminder that even established systems of government are subject to change, and are affected by factors both internal and external.  The British government, after all, evolved through various forms of aristocracy, feudalism, democracy, monarchy, liberty, and tyranny in the past thousand years or so.  Hume was witness to some of the more dramatic of these incidents, which doubtless informed his philosophy, and is perhaps why his idea of the ideal government has more to do with stability than it does with a particular system or morality.

To say that Hume’s essays are not worth reading would be untrue.  There is a reason that they endure, and, as is evident from this review, there are insights to be gained.  Perhaps it is unfair of me to compare a collection of essays to some of the most influential works of political thought in the past thousand years, especially without having yet read Hume’s weightier works.  That is why I’ve not removed them from my reading list, despite my disappointment with the essays.  The warnings about factionalism are apt, but there are other treatments of that subject which can accomplish much the same.  It might be better to wait until we tackle those treatises to begin your own interactions with the works of David Hume.