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This paper reconstructs Sir William Hamilton's argument for thinking that the unconditioned is not an object of thought, a conclusion he abbreviates with the slogan 'to think is to condition'. The paper describes Hamilton's conception of formal logic as the study of the laws of thought and claims that this conception allows these laws, particularly those of non-contradiction and excluded middle, to play a substantive role in Hamilton's argument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a manuscript poem "Go! Plaintive sounds" held at the National Library of Scotland, MS 23159.7, a thirty-two line poem in the hand of Scottish philosopher and historian David Hume (1711-76), part of a collection donated to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Scotland in 1838 by his nephew, also David Hume (1757-1838). Several biographies refer to the poem as if Hume authored it, however, it was written by Jacobite William Hamilton of Bangour (1704-1754). Also discussed is the friendship between the elder Hume and economist Adam Smith.

Could Lady Hamilton, the play Nelson's Enchantress, and Stella Campbell, all connected by Vandeleur Lee and Shaw's mother, have influenced the creation of Pygmalion? Emma Lyon was born in poverty in 1765. As a girl, she was tutored in the arts and social graces by Charles Greville, a man who regarded her as little more than a project. Going on to marry an ambassador, Sir William Hamilton, she became one of the most famous women in Europe. In 1897 Shaw reviewed Risden Home's 1897 play Nelson's Enchantress, starring Mrs. Patrick Campbell and Forbes Robertson. Within months he had written of Robertson that he was planning a play for that "rapscallionly flower girl of his." It has been long known that his remark referred to Stella Campbell. This essay shows not only that it was referencing a scene in Nelson's Enchantress, but that in Pygmalion we see similarities to Emma Hart's and Charles Greville's personalities, attitudes, and relationship. Shaw was both fascinated and repelled by women like Lady Hamilton. Did his ambivalent attitudes find a resolution in Eliza Doolittle? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]