Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T21:49:36.570Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Feminist Interpretation of Hume on Testimony

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2020

Dan O'Brien
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Hume is usually taken to have an evidentialist account of testimonial belief: one is justified in believing what someone says if one has empirical evidence that they have been reliable in the past. This account is impartialist: such evidence is required no matter who the person is, or what relations she may have to you. I, however, argue that Hume has another account of testimony, one grounded in sympathy. This account is partialist, in that empirical evidence is not required in order for one to be justified in believing some of the assertions of one's friends.

Type
OPEN ISSUE CONTENT
Information
Hypatia , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , Summer 2010 , pp. 632 - 652
Copyright
Copyright © 2010 by Hypatia, Inc.

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antony, Louise. 2008. Quine as feminist. In Epistemology: An anthology, ed. Sosa, E., Kim, J., Fantl, J. and McGrath, M.Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 552–84.Google Scholar
Baier, Annette. 1987. Hume: The women's moral theorist? In Women and moral theory, ed. Kittay, Eva Feder and Meyers, Diana T.Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield.Google Scholar
Baier, Annette. 1991. A progress of sentiments: Reflections on Hume's treatise. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Baier, Annette. 1994. Moral prejudices. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Baker, Judith. 2008. Trust and rationality. In Epistemology: An anthology, ed. Sosa, E., Kim, J., Fantl, J. and McGrath, M.Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 807–14.Google Scholar
Baron, Marcia. 1991. Impartiality and friendship. Ethics 101 (4): 836–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Battersby, Christine. 2005. The man of passion: Emotion, philosophy and sexual difference. In Representing emotion: New connections in the histories of art, music and medicine, ed. Gouk, Penelope and Mills, Helen. London: Ashgate, pp. 139–53.Google Scholar
Brown, Charlotte. 2008. Hume on moral rationalism, sentimentalism, and sympathy. In A companion to Hume, ed. Radcliffe, E.Malden, Mass.: Wiley‐Blackwell.Google Scholar
Cohon, Rachel. 2006. Hume's artificial and natural virtues. In The Blackwell guide to Hume's treatise, ed. Traiger, S.Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 256–75.Google Scholar
Cottingham, John. 1986. Partiality, favouritism and morality. Philosophical Quarterly 36 (144): 357–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dadlez, Eva M. 2009. Mirrors to one another: Emotion and value in Jane Austen and David Hume. Oxford: Wiley‐Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dees, Richard. 2002. Morality above metaphysics: Friendship and Philo's stance in Dialogue XII. Hume Studies 28:131–47.Google Scholar
Elgin, Catherine. 2008. Emotion and understanding. In Epistemology and emotions, ed. Brun, Georg, Doguoglu, Ulvi, and Kuenzle, Dominique. Aldershot, U.K.: Ashgate, pp. 33–49.Google Scholar
Everson, Stephen. 1995. The difference between feeling and thinking. In David Hume: Critical assessments, Vol. 1. ed. Tweyman, S.London: Routledge, pp. 10–24.Google Scholar
Farr, James. 1978. Hume, hermeneutics, and history: A “sympathetic account”. History and Theory 17 (3): 285–310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hirschmann, Nancy. 2000. Sympathy, empathy, and obligation: A feminist rereading. In Feminist interpretations of David Hume, ed. Jacobson, A.J.University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1739/1958. A treatise of human nature, ed. Selby‐Bigge, L.A.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1757a/1992. The natural history of religion, ed. Feiser, J.New York: MacMillan.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1757b/1875. A dissertation on the passions. In Essays: Moral, political and literary, ed. Green, T.H. and Grose, T.H.London: Longman's, Green, and Co.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1772/1999. Enquiry concerning human understanding, ed. Beauchamp, T.Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1777a. An inquiry concerning the principles of morals. In Enquiries concerning human understanding and concerning the principles of morals, ed. Selby‐Bigge, L.A.Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 167–343.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1777b/1987. Of national characters. In Essays: Moral, political and literary, ed. Miller, Eugene. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press, pp. 197–215.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1777c/1987. Of love and marriage. In Essays: Moral, political and literary, ed. Miller, Eugene. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press, pp. 557–62.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1777d/1987. Of superstition and enthusiasm. In Essays: Moral, political and literary, ed. Miller, Eugene. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press, pp. 73–79.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1777e/1987. Of impudence and modesty. In Essays: Moral, political and literary, ed. Miller, Eugene. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press, pp. 552–56.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1778/1983. The history of England, 6 vols. Indianapolis: Liberty Fund Press.Google Scholar
Hume, David. 1779/1980. Dialogues concerning natural religion, ed. Popkin, R.Indianapolis: Hackett.Google Scholar
Jones, Karen. 1996. Trust as an affective attitude. Ethics 107 (1): 4–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keller, Simon. 2004. Friendship and belief. Philosophical Papers 33 (3): 329–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kemp Smith, Norman. 1941. The philosophy of David Hume. London: MacMillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lloyd, Genevieve. 1984. The man of reason: ‘Male’ and ‘female’ in western philosophy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, Genevieve. 2000. Hume on the passion for truth. In Feminist interpretations of David Hume, ed. Jacobson, A.J.University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, pp. 39–59.Google Scholar
Mackie, John. 1977. Ethics: Inventing right and wrong. Harmondsworth: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sayre‐McCord, Geoffrey. 1994. On why Hume's ‘general point of view’ isn't ideal—and shouldn't be. Social Philosophy and Policy 11 (1): 202–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stroud, Sarah. 2006. Epistemic partiality in friendship. Ethics 116 (3): 498–524.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Traiger, Stephen. 1993. Humean testimony. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly 74 (2): 135–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, Bernard. 1981. Persons, character, and morality. In Moral luck, ed. Williams, B.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar