Though each of its four constituent essays has received scholarly attention in itself, Hume’s Four Dissertations(1757) has received virtually no consideration from scholars as a unified whole. This article offers such an assessment, and argues that two crucially Humean themes link the four texts. First, they show the applicability of Hume’s theory of the passions to a wide range of questions: to the philosophy of religion, to psychology, and to aesthetics. Second, they show Hume grappling with the tension between his iconoclastic religious skepticism and his valorization of tolerant and sociable exchange between thinkers with differing views.

For more information on the published version, visit Taylor and Francis's Website. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10848770.2013.804718

Jacob Sider Jost is a professor of English at Dickinson College.

Jacob Sider Jost, and John Immerwahr. “Hume the Sociable Iconoclast: The Case of the "Four Dissertations'”, in DAVID HUME AT 300: A CELEBRATION, PART 2, ed. Stanley Tweyman, special issue, The European Legacy 18, no. 5 (2013): 603-618. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10848770.2013.804718

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