There was one line from today’s reading that stuck out to me. On page 62, Philo says, “We are terrified, not bribed to the continuance of our existence” (Hume). That’s quite the statement. Hume claims that the only reason we continue living in this world isn’t that we like it but that we are afraid of death. We don’t know what will happen after death and so avoid it. I knew I had heard this somewhere before. It only took a moment for me to realize where. In the famous “to be or not to be” speech, Hamlet postulates this very thing. He says,
“who would...grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death...puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?” (Shakespeare 3.1)
This is the exact same principle that Hume mentions. Hamlet and Philo both say that the only reason people put up with all the troubles of this life is that they don’t know what happens after death. This connection makes me wonder if Hume knew that his philosophical musings were already explored by Hamlet. Or perhaps this was a widely known view, which is why it appears in both Shakespeare’s play and Hume’s writing. I’m actually really curious as to where Hume got this idea. All I really know is that Shakespeare came first, so Hume either got it from him or from somewhere else. Or maybe he thought it up himself and didn’t even realize that someone had already thought of it. I think he most likely heard it from somewhere else, whether or not it was from Shakespeare is the mystery. Where do you think he got it from?
P.S. I commented on Rachael‘s and Clabo‘s posts
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