Noble Infirmity
Love of Fame in Hume
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6350809 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Sabl (0000-0001-6628-1720, University of California, Los Angeles, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 542-568 |
| Publication date | 2006-10-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Political Theory (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0090-5917 • E-ISSN: 1552-7476 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0090591706290522 |
| OpenAlex | W2047761311 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 13 |
The love of fame is a common theme in republican thought. But few, historically or now, have examined with rigor this sentiment’s nature, purpose, and worth. The work of David Hume is an exception. Hume, this paper argues, dialectically took up not only all the classic reasons for loving fame—as spur to useful effort, motivator of virtue, consolation to virtue unrewarded, and safe harbor in the midst of historical flux—but the skeptical reasons for doubting that fame is attainable or that, even if it is attainable, its pursuit motivates good actions. The theme pervades not only his systematic moral works but his essays and letters, his autobiography, and History of England. Hume’s subtle, ambivalent arguments suggest reasons to value the love of fame in spite of modern, or postmodern, doubts regarding the nature of true fame or even its existence—and perhaps to regard such love as unavoidable
Aesthetics · Art · Biography · Consolation · Epistemology · Literature · Postmodernism · Skepticism · Sociology · Theme (computing · Theology · Value (mathematics · Virtue · Economic Theory and Institutions · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics
| Citations per year | 0.33 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2022 (3) |
| Highly cited | No |