| Summary: | This thesis is the first attempt to give an all-embracing survey of the second book of A Treatise of Human Nature. This masterpiece, published by David Hume in 1739-40, consists of three books, in which he discusses three operations of the mind, viz. the understanding, the passions, and morality, respectively. But unlike Books I and III, no book-length study of Book II has ever been produced in the secondary literature. This is unfortunate, because Hume's accounts of the particular topics of the passions are delivered in a jigsaw puzzle manner, strewn here and there in various different places and contexts. This thesis aims to uncover Hume's underlying intention, by providing a map or chart by which we can collect and connect the scattered pieces of his argument together, and thereby build them into a unified system. In pursuing this aim, I follow Hume's lead and examine all subjects as they appear in Book II with my focus on Hume's original distinction between the indirect and the direct passions. For, it is this indirect and direct division that functions as the key linkage that forms the whole system of the passions into a 'new and extraordinary' structure by bridging between the other two systems. Here emerges a breathtakingly rich and profound system, filled with human warmth and a candidly expressed belief in human nature, clear of ostentation or dogmatism. No doubt Book II is the most fascinating and intriguing of the three books of the Treatise.
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