ABSTRACT
Ancient philosophy, history, and literature played a central, those sometimes diffuse role, in Hume’s philosophy. This chapter surveys Hume’s engagement with the ancients, in particular the figure of the ancient philosopher which serves as a key foil to Hume’s account of the modern ruling passions and virtues. It develops these themes through a reading of the Four Dissertations and John Home’s play, Douglas, a Tragedy which dramatizes key aspects of Hume’s moral philosophy.
