Series Launch: Tapping My Hume Sign

As the self-appointed Hume Hobbyist of substack, I write many posts and notes on David Hume, my favorite philosopher. These posts and notes often bait a rebuttal, that are usually really bad because they don’t actually engage with the content of my writing, let alone Hume’s.

It’s no coincidence that these people gravitate to my notes on Hume and miracles: He is the most maligned philosopher by theists in philosophy of religion. Now, being a maligned philosopher is a badge of honor for many philosophers, just ask Peter Singer. The issue here is that people malign Hume while they don’t understand him and make basic errors about his arguments. I think Hume would prefer earning infamy for true statements about him, not false ones.

I Can Be Mean Sometimes (Though I Don’t Like It)

I can be a jerk in these interactions. I was even once called out by Scott Alexander for “embarrassing” myself. Call me biased, but I think this was a little too harsh.

If you know me in person, or have been repeatedly on the opposite side of a debate with me, you’ll know I don’t like being a jerk. I try to be agreeable, conciliatory, and overall not a jerk, even if I disagree with someone. Heck, I can name multiple people that I have strong disagreements with on here about issues ranging from the truth of Christianity to the nature of moral realism. We often crack jokes with each other! It’s fine!

The reason I am a jerk to some detractors is because they know far less than they claim they do, repeat cliche arguments that I have already addressed, and generally act smug and condescending.

I’ve written thousands of words and dozens of pages on Hume, while these people seemingly have only read the summary of C.S. Lewis’s criticism of Hume or watched one of the many YouTube videos that have only read the summary of C.S. Lewis’s criticism of Hume.

So when I have these interactions, often with people who don’t follow me, don’t write many substack articles, have less than 10 followers, and are in general quite irritable and repetitive, I am faced with a choice:

1. I could have a long conversation in which I put forth more effort than they do, that takes hours of my time, provokes frustration that makes me look bad or meaner than I prefer to conduct myself.

2. OR I could shame my interlocutor into actually reading what I have already written, that I spent a couple dozen hours writing and thinking about.

Now, you may say “Joe you don’t have to be rude to people who don’t read your stuff, that’s kind of self-centered isn’t it?” Maybe, but I think if you’re going to engage in a conversation of a nuanced topic, you should either know what you’re talking about exhibit humility. This is not what my interlocutors do!

In the situations where I haven’t been rude and subsequently crashed out, the conversation inevitably reverted to “choosing” option one. I’ll post a link to my long argument, and they will pretend like they have read it, but within a few comments, it’s clear that they haven’t.

It’s like this scene from Inglourious Basterds, but instead of “hand gestures suggesting Germanness” it’s “comments suggesting you have not actually read what I wrote.”

And so, I choose to be a little bit of a jerk! It’s a more efficient use of time!

This Series Is A Solution

But as I already mentioned, I don’t like being mean, so I have decided to start this series. I’m going to address specific misconceptions people have about Hume. Instead of being a jerk toward a zealot entering my replies, I’ll just post these articles in an quasi-automated way. I’m tapping the sign, like that Simpsons meme.

To reiterate, I am not a Hume expert, just a hobbyist. I am not a Peter Millican, Don Garrett, Simon Blackburn, or Bill Vanderburgh.

But! I have read many of these thinkers and am doing my own long-term self-guided study of Hume, where I periodically write posts about what scholarship I find says about him, that amount to book reports (eventually, we’ll get away from miracles, but not yet). In this way, I’m not pretending to be an expert on Hume studies, but as someone who knows the basics well enough to write about them.

So, you can expect my first post very soon. When you come back to this post, I’ll try to edit it to update with new posts in the series.

See you soon!