Peter Millican’s Papers and Talks on Hume
Peter Millican is Gilbert Ryle Fellow in Philosophy, and Reader in Early Modern Philosophy at Hertford College, University of Oxford. He is also Honorary Visiting Professor at the University of York, and currently Illumni David Hume Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH), University of Edinburgh. From 1985 until 2005 he lectured in Philosophy and Computing at the University of Leeds, and he retains strong links with the Leeds Electronic Text Centre, of which he was founding director and where he started the “Leeds Hume Project” from which davidhume.org developed. In 2005 he moved to Oxford University, and from 2005 until 2010 he was Co-Editor of the journal Hume Studies.
(Please note that this page is under continuous development. Where an item is listed but not linked, my intention is to mount it in due course, usually after processing to a suitable form. The very latest items might not yet have been completed, but are listed here as a reminder to myself.)
Most of these files are in “PDF” form, to maintain platform independence. Any PowerPoint slides have been reduced to six or twelve per page, and are available in both a colour and a greyscale form (the former for viewing, the latter for printing).
2011
- “Hume’s ‘Scepticism’ about Induction”
Invited talk at Moscow Conference on “David Hume and Contemporary Philosophy” (November) - “Learning from 300 Years of Hume”
Bentham Lecture at University College, London (November 24th) - “Norms, Virtue and Autonomy in 17th and 18th-Century Philosophy”
Invited talk at Neuchâtel Conference (October) - “Belief and Doubt in David Hume”
Invited talk at Prague Conference (September) - “Recent Books on Hume”
Panel Discussion at Hume Society Conference, Edinburgh (July) - “Reason, Induction and Causation in Hume’s Philosophy”
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh (June 17th) - “The Significance of David Hume: Scepticism, Science, and Superstition”
Royal Society of Edinburgh (May 23rd) - “Hume at 300”
Royal Society of Arts, London (May 12th) - “Hume and the Borders”
Lecture at Paxton House, Chirnside Philosophy Festival (April 30th) - Hume’s Birthday Party - 26th April 2011
Panel discussion at Edinburgh University - “Is Hume an Inductive Sceptic?”, published in VOX 15, Summer 2011.
- “Finding Inspiration in Hume”, published in The Philosophers' Magazine 54.3, 2011.
- “Salvaging Hume’s Maxim about Miracles”
Tercentenary Workshop: Hume on Morality and Religion, St Andrews (March 4th) - “Hume’s Sceptical Stance: 1. Induction”
- “Hume’s Sceptical Stance: 2. Miracles”
- “Hume’s Sceptical Stance: 3. Scepticism”
Extramural Course at Rewley House, Oxford (January)
2010
- “Twenty Questions about Hume’s ‘Of Miracles’”
To appear in Antony O’Hear (ed.), Philosophy and Religion (Cambridge University Press) - “Hume on Miracles: A flawed argument, with an enduring moral”
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh (September 22nd) - “Hume, Causal Realism, and Free Will”
To appear in Keith Allen and Tom Stoneham (eds), Causation and Modern Philosophy (Routledge) - “Hume’s Determinism”
To appear in Canadian Journal of Philosophy - “Comments on Dario Perinetti, ‘Hume’s Sceptical Solutions’”
Hume Conference, Antwerp (July) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
- “Hume’s Understanding of the Faculties”
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh (January 26th)
2009
- “Hume on Induction and the Faculties”
Draft article (August) - “Hume, Causal Realism, and Causal Science”
Published in Mind (July) - “Religious Belief, Miracles, and David Hume” - handout (on probability, examples, and bibliography)
Royal Institute of Philosophy (February) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
2008
- “Hume on Causal Science: Sceptical Realist, or Non-Sceptical Anti-Realist?”
NYU Conference on “Skepticism” (November) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
- “Hume, Causal Realism, and Causal Science” (colour slides)
Oxford Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy (October) - Greyscale slides from the above
- “Hume’s Idea of Necessary Connexion: Of What is it the Idea?”
Hume Conference, Iceland (August) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
- “The Significance of David Hume” (recorded interview) (April, also linked from the Philosophy Bites website)
- “Hume, Causal Realism, and Free Will: The State of the Debate” (handout)
Conference on Causation, York (March) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
2007
- “Against the New Hume”
Published in The New Hume Debate: Revised Edition (ed. Read and Richman, December) - “Humes Old and New: Four Fashionable Falsehoods, and One Unfashionable Truth”
Published in Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume (July) - Handout from the above
- Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
- Introduction to “World’s Classics” Edition of Hume’s First Enquiry
Published by Oxford University Press (June)
2006
- “Understanding the World, from Aristotle to Quantum Mechanics: The Significance of David Hume” (colour slides)
Hertford to Hartford Lecture, University of Hartford, Connecticut (November) - Greyscale slides from the above
- “Hume’s ‘Compleat Answer to Dr Reid’”
Hume Conference, University of Koblenz, Germany (August) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
- “Kemp Smith on Causation” (colour slides)
Kemp Smith 101 Conference, University of Oxford (May) - Greyscale slides from the above
- “The Significance of David Hume” (colour slides)
Hertford College Soiree (May) - Greyscale slides from the above
2005
- “Hume’s Determinism”
Hume Conference, University of Toronto (July) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
2004
- Comments on Houston Smit’s "A Priority, Reason, and Induction in Hume”
Hume Conference, University of Keio, Tokyo (August) - “Hume’s ‘Compleat Answer to Dr Reid’”
Third International Reid Symposium, University of Aberdeen (July)
2003
- “Humes Old and New: Cartesian Fellow-Traveller, or Revolutionary?”
Royal Institute of Philosophy Symposium on Descartes and Hume, University of Manchester (December) - Colour slides from the above
- Greyscale slides from the above
- “Hume, Miracles, and Probabilities: Meeting Earman’s Challenge”
Hume Conference, University of Las Vegas (July-August) - Slides from the above
2002
- Reading Hume on Human Understanding (Oxford University Press)
- “Introduction” to Reading Hume on Human Understanding
- “The Context, Aims, and Structure of Hume’s First Enquiry
- “Hume’s Sceptical Doubts Concerning Induction”
- “Critical Survey of the Literature on Hume and the First Enquiry
2001
- “The Logic of Hume’s Sceptical Doubts”
Hume Conference, University of Victoria, BC (July) - “Beauchamp’s Student Editions of the Enquiries”
Hume Conference, University of Victoria, BC (July)
2000
- Critical Survey of the Literature on Hume and the First Enquiry
First Web edition - Hume’s Enquiry concerning Human Understanding
Leeds Web edition
1999
- Hume Conference, University of Cork (July)
1998
- “Hume on Reason and Induction: Epistemology or Cognitive Science?”
Hume Studies 24, pp. 141-59 - “The Problem of the First Enquiry: Concluding the 1998 Stirling Conference”
Hume Conference, University of Stirling (July)
1997
- “Induction”
Encyclopaedia of Empiricism, eds. Don Garrett and Edward Barbanell, Greenwood Press, pp. 180-8 - “Knowledge”
Encyclopaedia of Empiricism, eds. Don Garrett and Edward Barbanell, Greenwood Press, pp. 202-5 - “Logic”
Encyclopaedia of Empiricism, eds. Don Garrett and Edward Barbanell, Greenwood Press, pp. 215-7 - “Garrett on Reason and Induction”
Hume Conference, University of Monterey (July-August)
1996
- Hume, Induction, and Probability
PhD thesis, University of Leeds, pp. 294 + xv (unlike previous versions, this has been carefully prepared to ensure that the pagination corresponds almost exactly with the original, enabling the final indexes to be used) - Comments on Graciela De Pierris, "Causality as a Philosophical Relation in Hume”
Hume Conference, University of Nottingham (July)
1995
- “Hume’s Argument concerning Induction: Structure and Interpretation”
in S. Tweyman (ed) David Hume: Critical Assessments, Routledge, vol. II, pp. 91-144, and reprinted in David W. D. Owen (ed) Hume: General Philosophy (2000), Routledge, vol. 2 pp. 165-218 (marginal page numbers have been added, to facilitate handling of references to the original) - “Hume, Induction and Reason”
Hume Conference, University of Utah (July)
1993
- “‘Hume’s Theorem’ concerning Miracles”
Philosophical Quarterly 43, pp. 489-95
1992
- (paper on induction)
Hume Conference, University of Nantes
1989
- (paper on induction)
Hume Conference, Lancaster University (August)
1986
- “Natural Necessity and Induction", in Philosophy
1982
- “Mackie’s Defence of Induction", in Analysis