Unknown Hume

Abstract

In this paper I discuss a few turning points in Hume's life and try to show that their
traditional representations must be reconsidered. At fi rst, I discuss the early period of Hume's
intellectual development and argue that his recently discovered “An Early Fragment on Evil” is
a manuscript copy of a section of a treatise on natural religion, written by Hume in 1729–1731
and destroyed about 1751. Then I turn to his “Treatise of Human Nature” and suggest a method
of reconstructing the order of its writing by Hume. After that I discuss another lost work of Hume
on metaphysical basis of geometry. Among other things, I show that this treatise was a rather
small essay. And, fi nally, I consider one important but almost unknown episode, that took place
in Hume's last days. All these considerations might contribute to reassessment of a trajectory of
Hume's life in the whole.