David Hume

Edinburgh

He belongs to the circle of the 'Scottish Enlightenment' around Adam Smith and others.

💡 Did you know? Hume was a leading figure of the „Scottish Enlightenment“, which made Edinburgh a centre of thought in the 18th century.

empiricism

All knowledge stems from impressions of experience: after Locke and Berkeley, the third great British empiricist.

💡 Did you know? Hume pushed empiricism (all knowledge comes from experience) to radical scepticism.

habit

We see that B follows A: the necessary connection between them we never see.

💡 Did you know? We never actually see a cause „compel“ an effect: we infer it only from habit, having often seen them in sequence.

problem of induction

The sun has always risen so far: but that is no proof for tomorrow. Popper later took this as his starting point.

💡 Did you know? From „the sun has always risen so far“ it does not logically follow that it will rise tomorrow: Hume's famous problem of induction.

A Treatise of Human Nature

Written in his mid-twenties: only later, more accessible versions made him famous.

💡 Did you know? His early masterwork „fell dead-born from the press“, as Hume himself put it: only later was it highly prized.

reason is the slave of the passions

Not reason but sympathy drives our moral actions.

💡 Did you know? „Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions“: not intellect but feeling drives us.

no ought from is

Moral norms cannot be derived from facts alone: a cornerstone of modern ethics.

💡 Did you know? „Hume's law“: from mere facts (is) no moral obligation (ought) can be logically derived.

Immanuel Kant

Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason' is in part an answer to Hume's scepticism.

💡 Did you know? Kant confessed that Hume had roused him „from his dogmatic slumber“ and set his whole philosophy in motion.

suspicion of atheism

Two applications failed against church opposition: some of his critique of religion appeared only posthumously.

💡 Did you know? He prudently had his 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion' printed only after his death.

History of England

The standard work for decades: contemporaries saw him as a historian more than a philosopher.

💡 Did you know? Not philosophy but his multi-volume „History of England“ made Hume rich and famous in his lifetime.

the good David

As embassy secretary in Paris, the sceptic became the darling of the Enlightenment salons.

💡 Did you know? In Edinburgh the portly bachelor was beloved as an excellent cook and host.

cheerfully and calmly

Visitors like Boswell reported with astonishment on his unbroken good humour.

💡 Did you know? The sceptic died in 1776 unusually cheerful, to the astonishment of pious contemporaries who had expected a repentant end.

David Hume

David Hume was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher whose radical empiricism questioned, among other things, the notion of cause and the limits of reason.

💡 Did you know? By Kant's own admission, he roused Immanuel Kant „from his dogmatic slumber“.