ABSTRACT
The philosophical system of David Hume constitutes a moment in the history of philosophy that complicates any simplistic account of the reason-passion dichotomy and the way it has been symbolized by reference to the markers for sexual difference. Hume has a basically mechanistic understanding of emotion, which has the capacity to explain all human passions, but without an ability to sufficiently analyse human specificities and differences. Hume retains a notion of sexual difference, but locates this at the level of different modes of violent passion. Education could improve women’s minds, but since Hume argues that women require a different set of virtues, it seems that Hume would not wish for an educational system that would treat men and women in the same way. As in Hume’s account of philosophical ‘hunting’, so for the Kantian philosopher inertia and boredom are debilitating, and pain is necessary for a healthy and flourishing life.
