Hume Texts Online

Peter Millican’s Papers and Talks on Hume and Early Modern Philosophy

Peter Millican is Gilbert Ryle Fellow and Professor of Philosophy at Hertford College, University of Oxford. Since 2022 he has also been Visiting Professor of Philosophy at The National University of Singapore. From 1985 until 2005 he lectured in Philosophy and Computing at the University of Leeds, where he founded the Electronic Text Centre and 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note that this page is under continuous development, and makes no claim to completeness, especially in respect of unpublished material. Some earlier items are listed but not yet included on the website, usually because they have proved hard to track down. For a selection of papers on other topics - e.g. Ethics, Philosophy of AI and Computing, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Religion - please go to PAPERS ON OTHER TOPICS.)

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).

2025

• “Weighing Up Hume on Miracles”
  University of Canterbury, New Zealand (March)
• “Hume, Naturalism and Scepticism: Rejecting an Influential Narrative”
  University of Otago, New Zealand (February)

2024

• “Weighing Up Hume’s ‘Of Miracles’”, to appear in Paul Russell (ed.), Hume’s Dialogues concerning Natural Religion: A Critical Guide, Cambridge University Press
• “Hume, Naturalism and Scepticism: Rejecting an Influential Narrative”, to appear in John Hyman and Michael Thorne (eds), Scepticism and Naturalism: Hume, Wittgenstein, Strawson, Brill Studies in Scepticism
• “Hume as Regularity Theorist - After All!: Completing a Counter-Revolution”, Hume Studies 49, pp. 101-162

2023

• “Hume on Free Will and Moral Responsibility”, in Maximilian Kiener (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Responsibility, Routledge, pp. 68-81
• “Hume’s Ethical Theory”, in Tom Angier (ed.), Ethics: The Key Thinkers, Bloomsbury, second edition, pp. 89-111

2021

• “Hume on Causation and Causal Powers”, in Benjamin Hill, Henrik Lagerlund and Stathis Psillos (eds), Reconsidering Causal Powers: Historical and Conceptual Perspectives, Oxford Univesity Press, pp. 206-40
• “Hume on Modality”, in Otávio Bueno and Scott Shalkowski (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Modality, Routledge, pp. 364-77

2020

• “The Relation between Hume’s Two Enquiries”, in Jacqueline Taylor (ed.), Reading Hume on the Principles of Morals, Oxford University Press, pp. 273-99

2019

• “What Hume Really Thought about Causation” – handout, Cambridge Moral Sciences Club (November)
• Colour slides from the above
• Greyscale slides from the above
• “Hume on the Will, and on Free Will”, colour slides, “Recasting the Treatise” Workshop on Book 2, Oxford (March)
• Greyscale slides from the above

2018

• “Hume’s Pivotal Argument, and His Supposed Obligation of Reason”, Hume Studies 44, pp. 167-208
• “Hume’s Decisive Turn Away From Egoism”, Hume Conference, Budapest (July)
• Colour slides from the above
• Greyscale slides from the above

2017

• “Defending the Common-Core/Diversity Dilemma: One Author’s Reply to Abram, Heim, Lukasiewicz, Moser, Oppy, Salamon, Senor, Taliaferro & Porot”, European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 9, pp. 81-106
• “Hume’s Fork, and His Theory of Relations”, Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 95, pp. 3-65
• “Why Hume Disowned His Treatise of Human Nature”, colour slides, Scottish Seminar in Early Modern Philosophy, Edinburgh (April)
• Greyscale slides from the above
• “Hume’s Miracle Maxim: Where It’s Right and Where It’s Wrong”, colour slides, Singapore National University (April)
• Greyscale slides from the above

2016

• “Hume’s Chief Argument”, in Paul Russell (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Hume, Oxford University Press, pp. 82-108

2015

• “The Common-Core/Diversity Dilemma: Revisions of Humean Thought, New Empirical Research, and the Limits of Rational Religious Belief” (joint with Branden Thornhill-Miller), European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 7, pp. 1-49
• “Locke on Substance and Our Ideas of Substances”, in Paul Lodge and Tom Stoneham (eds), Locke and Leibniz on Substance, Routledge, pp. 8-27

2014

• “Skepticism about Garrett’s Hume: Faculties, Concepts, and Imposed Coherence”, Hume Studies 40, pp. 205-26

2013

• “Earman on Hume on Miracles”, in Stewart Duncan and Antonia Lolordo (eds), Debates in Modern Philosophy, Routledge, pp. 271-83, commenting on John Earman, “Bayes, Hume, Price, and Miracles”, in the same volume, pp. 258-70

2012

• “Hume’s ‘Scepticism’ about Induction”, in Alan Bailey and Dan O’Brien (eds), The Continuum Companion to Hume, Continuum, pp. 57-103
• “Hume’s Theory of Morals”, in Tom Angier (ed.), Ethics: The Key Thinkers, Continuum, pp. 105-31

2011

• “Hume, Causal Realism, and Free Will”, in Keith Allen and Tom Stoneham (eds), Causation and Modern Philosophy (Routledge), pp. 123-65
• “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 (joint with Don Garrett), 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)
• “Twenty Questions about Hume’s ‘Of Miracles’”, in Antony O’Hear (ed.), Philosophy and Religion Cambridge University Press, pp. 151-92- “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

• “Hume on Miracles: A flawed argument, with an enduring moral”
  Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, Edinburgh (September 22nd)
• “Hume’s Determinism”, Canadian Journal of Philosophy 40, pp. 611-42
• “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”, Mind 118, pp. 647-712
• “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”, in Rupert Read and Ken Richman (eds), The New Hume Debate: Revised Edition, Routledge, pp. 211-52
• “Humes Old and New: Four Fashionable Falsehoods, and One Unfashionable Truth”, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 81, pp. 163-99
• 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, Oxford University Press, pp. ix-lvi

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, pp.1-26 (plus contents, index)
• “The Context, Aims, and Structure of Hume’s First Enquiry, Chapter 1, pp. 27-65
• “Hume’s Sceptical Doubts Concerning Induction”, Chapter 4, pp. 107-73
• “Critical Survey of the Literature on Hume and the First Enquiry, pp. 413-74

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

• “The Devil’s Advocate”, Cogito 3, pp. 193-207
• (paper on induction)
  Hume Conference, Lancaster University (August)

1986

• “Natural Necessity and Induction”, Philosophy 61, pp. 395-403

1982

• “Mackie’s Defence of Induction”, Analysis 42, pp. 19-24