Luncheon Report
Eliana María Santanatoglia, Director of the Fundación Instituto David Hume, Centro de Investigaciones en Evolución Normativa e Institucional.
Topic: “Hume Today. Hume ́s Contributions to Current Philosophy and Social Sciences”
Brief Summary: David Hume, Scottish Enlightenment philosopher of the eighteenth century, contemporary of Adam Smith, wrote six vol- umes of The History of England. His work was controversial for his times. His intent was to understand human nature and his approach was an experimental method of reasoning in moral subjects. He delved into three areas: Naturalism, Empiricism and Human Nature. He divided Human Nature into three areas as well: Understanding, Passion and Morals. Seen as an inspiration to current twentieth and twenty-first century schools of thought, his tenets coincide with current views of the world. Areas such as the study of human behavior, evolutionary biology, game theory and the connection between natural sciences and social sciences have been influenced by his views. Today, many consider him a “rock star of philosophy”.
After a series of questions and answers, President Mariel Birnbaumer closed the meeting promptly at 2:30
Submitted by Gwendolyn Diaz Ridgeway
Luncheon Announcement
David Hume, Scottish philosopher, historian and economist, born in 1711, is considered one of the great minds of the Scottish Enlightenment and of the British Empiricism movement that included John Lock, George Berkeley and others.
An out-and-out empiricist and anti-rationalist, he maintained that “human experience is as close as we are ever going to get to the truth” and that “experience and observation must be the foundations of any logical argument”.
Dr Eliana Santanatoglia, Executive Director of the “Fundación Instituto David Hume”, will speak on Hume’s influence on philosophy and social sciences in society today.
Eliana has taught graduate and post-graduate courses and has carried out research at a number of institutions of higher learning. She served as director of the Master’s program in Economics and Political Science and of the degree course in Social Sciences at the Instituto Universitario ESEADE (Escuela Superior de Economía y Administración de Empresas).
Eliana graduated in Law at the University of Buenos Aires, received an MSc in Political Science from ESEADE and an MSc in Philosophy in Social Sciences from the London School of Economics and Political Science. Finally, she returned to the University of Buenos Aires to receive her Doctorate.