David Hume as a Neoclassical Historian

Abstract

A rich secondary literature has developed around Hume’s History of England. In the role of historian, Hume has been described as a reformer of British political culture,¹ a Baconian natural historian of morals,² a failed scientific historian,³ a reactionary struggling with the liberalism of his early career,⁴ a ‘scientific’ whig who transcended political parties,⁵ a student of the ‘science of man,’⁶ a ‘practical’ moralist.⁷ While most recent studies of Hume have focused on his central place in the history of modern philosophy and his History as somehow a part of that philosophy, they have tended to lose sight of Hume’s ties to classical historiography,⁸ ties Hume as well as his original readers readily acknowledged. It is the contention of this Chapter that Hume and his audience saw the History as a neoclassical work intended to solve the weakness in English historiography. Perhaps above all other ambitions, Hume’s most ardent wish was to construct such a work. It is the task of this Chapter to show how the various philosophical and political projects just mentioned could be subsumed in a neoclassical narrative that would earn a European reputation as a literary masterpiece.