David Hume [ Philosophy ]
… of Letters While Hume’s short autobiography testifies to the lack of success of his works, it reveals how Hume courted celebrity in the Republic of Letters. He lamented the public’s absence of engagement with his works, giving almost a … There is no doubt a part of posture in such self-portrayal. A friend of Hume’s, reflecting on the fact that Hume was a celebrity of the Republic of Letters, wrote to him: ‘What you say of your being detested as a Scotsman & dispised [sic] … the link between philosophical retreat and engagement with the world, between the quest for knowledge and the quest for celebrity, between philosophers and readers as well. And it is the genre of the essay, which provides exactly this mode …
Clubs | Enlightenment | France | Philosophy | Republic of Letters | Salons | Scotland | Societies
Encyclopedia