Scholarly Comments on Academic Economics

Hume’s Manuscript Account of the Extraordinary Affair Between Him and Rousseau

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Abstract

Published here is David Hume’s original manuscript account of his tangle with Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Hume was quite dissatisfied with the rushed version of the account, published in London in 1766, which, apart from the letters therein, was in the main a retranslation of a French translation of Hume’s manuscript. Hume “expresses himself bluntly and forcibly,” as one scholar said about this never-before-published manuscript. Also provided is a link to a PDF scan of the original manuscript itself, kindly provided by the National Library of Scotland.