Harbal wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:33 amThis makes passions sound like personal interests that are held with more than a casual enthusiasm, more than strong emotional drives. Perhaps the word passion didn't necessarily imply the same degree of emotional power that is usually associated with it these days.
It's a very long time since I read Hume, so I went to this article:
https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/emot ... 8Hume.html The long and short of it is that Hume used 'passion' to mean all sorts of things. Here's a taste*:
"’Passions’ are impressions of reflection, yet as in Hutcheson, they seem to be relatively low-order perceptions: they are responses to pleasurable or painful perceptions – and sometimes even innate impulses and instincts – not meta-perceptions."
*more of a warning than a taste.
Harbal wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:33 amWords do change in meaning over time.
Hume does use 'passion' to mean strong emotional drives as well. It's very confusing, and to be frank, Hume is one of the more lucid philosophers. You really have to appreciate the context - and of course how you interpret a philosopher depends on your own passions.
Harbal wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:33 amI often think that must be particularly so with things like the Bible, where not only the passage of time has obscured meaning, but also errors in translation and interpretation are bound to have taken us even further away from the original meanings.
Yes; what a coincidence that the word of god is as open to change and interpretation as the word of man.
Harbal wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:33 amChristianity, at least, seems to take a belt and braces approach. If you can't be reasoned into it, there is always the possibility that you might be convinced of the great value of faith without reason, which is the thing that most impresses God.
Anything is possible, I suppose. I suspect that the value a Christian puts on their faith is inversely proportional to the amount of reasoning they have done. Some people, with the aid of utterly delinquent logic, can persuade themselves that belief in god is entirely rational, in a way that not believing in something for which there is only circumstantial evidence, isn't.