David Hume

Introduction

This unit examines David Hume's reasons for being complacent in the face of death, as these are laid out in his suppressed essay of 1755, ‘Of the immortality of the soul’. More generally, they examine some of the shifts in attitude concerning death and religious belief that were taking place in Europe at the end of the eighteenth century, through examination of this and other short essays.

This unit is an adapted extract from the Open University course From Enlightenment to Romanticism c.1780-1830 (A207) [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)]