Age of Reason, or of Passion? The Case of David Hume

Eighteenth-century writers on human nature in France, England, and Scotland were fascinated by the emotions and their place in morality, politics, art, and religion.

Hume goes further than most of his contemporaries are prepared to go in reconfiguring reason itself in emotional terms. The result is not that emotion always wins in the battle between reason and emotion; rather that no such battle ever takes place

Dr James Harris – University of St Andrews