The Great Guide: What David Hume can teach us about Being Human and Living Well by Julian Baggini

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Great Guide: What David Hume can teach us about Being Human and Living Well by Julian Baggini Lorraine L. Besser Julian Baggini. The Great Guide: What David Hume can teach us about Being Human and Living Well. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2021. Pp. 328. Electronic ISBN 9780691211206, $47.00. In this book, Baggini explores Hume’s life and philosophy in an effort to decipher what contemporary, non-academic, audiences might take away from it about what it means to be human and to live well. This is a daunting project for a couple of reasons. First, in comparison with other major figures in the history of philosophy such as Aristotle, Hume does not himself give much direct guidance on these topics. His writings purport to present analyses of human nature, the influences on it, and the ways in which people tend to respond to each other. The degree to which Hume intended these analyses to inform normative proposals is a question of debate amongst Hume scholars, yet most would agree that Hume’s mission falls short of presenting a “great guide,” making Baggini’s project a difficult one, of piecing together claims about how to live and about human nature that are found throughout Hume’s works. Second, Hume’s opus contains a range of works, some more philosophical than others, and some where Hume’s aims and ambitions are unclear. This diversity presents challenges to the project of finding common threads between them, again making Baggini’s project a difficult one. Yet Baggini approaches this project not as a philosopher, but as a traveler. His interest is not in developing arguments or taking a stand on interpretive debates, but in observing Hume’s works along with his life. From the observer’s perspective, we learn about how to live by looking at the lives we find valuable, and it is clear from the [End Page 311] outset that Baggini finds much value in the ways in which Hume lived. He opens his work by noting the disparity between Hume’s reputation within academic philosophy and outside of it; in one respect, we can read Baggini’s work itself as an effort to bring to Hume the attention outside of academics that he so clearly deserves. Baggini does this by approaching Hume as a “harmonious whole” in which his actions and words come together; as “a person whose philosophy touches every aspect of how he lived and who he was” (4). We could debate the attribution of this harmony, and explore its validity as a claim that holds both within Hume’s writings and between his life and his writings, but this would be to adopt the internal perspective of a philosopher. As philosophers, we are drawn to the examination of ideas from the internal perspective; as interpreters of Hume in particular, we try to get inside his ideas and evaluate them from within the context they appear. When it comes to appreciating Baggini’s work, however, this approach will not get us very far. Rather, to appreciate the Great Guide, we have to approach it, along with Baggini, as travelers into Hume’s life, as casual readers interested in Hume qua an intellectual living within social circles of a particular era, whose writings can deliver insight into how he lived. When we do this, we get unique and unparalleled advice about how to live, rooted in the fallibility of human nature and appreciation of the engagement and comfort found within social living. Hume’s life was not ideal, and Hume himself was far from perfect. Yet he lived well lived well by not taking himself too seriously, by recognizing the prejudices in himself and in others, by treating reason as fallible, and most importantly, by enjoying the company of others. Baggini appropriately highlights the pressing need for this kind of approach to life within today’s society: If ever there were a time in recent history to turn to Hume, now is surely it. The enthusiasts are on the rise, in the form of strongman political populists who assert the will of the people as though it were absolute and absolutely infallible. In more settled times...