Studying the Effects of Tragedy in Moral and Cognitive Judgments According to David Hume

David Hume, the Scottish empiricist, wrote a very short essay called “Of Tragedy”. It is always treated as an important text when discussing Hume’s view on tragedy. Hume begins the essay with the following question: why is it that tragedy is pleasurable, in spite of the painful passions it causes? Hume focuses on tragedy and its relationship with passions. So far Hume’s view on this relationship has been formulated in many different ways, one of which is Hume’s conversion theory. According to this theory, painful passions are turned into pleasurable ones using stylistic and formal rhetorical means. This view has been constantly proved, disproved, edited and changed by either its supporters or its critics. However, in most cases, the supporters or the critics agree that tragedy induces pleasure using poetic or rhetoricalstylistic means. This view goes on to argue that all the functions and effects of tragedy should be reduced to functions and effects of taste and aesthetic, focusing on the production of pleasure. This paper tries to explore other effects of tragedy according to Hume. First I would analyze and explore the ignored parts of the “Of Tragedy” essay, then I look into Hume’s thoughts on tragedy, scattered over other Humean texts and finally, I would situate Hume’s essay in the broader context of Hume’s philosophy to compare his other philosophical ideas with those focusing on tragedy. This way we can analyze other effects of tragedy according to Hume, especially its effects in the domain of cognition and mortality, and also find a way to reconsider Hume’s conversion theory.