David Hume

David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776) (N.B. The birthdate is May 7 by the Gregorian reckoning of his time; this date being used by the International Humanist and Ethical Union when celebrating his birthday) was a Scottish philosopher and historian and, with Adam Smith and Thomas Reid among others, one of the most important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment. Many regard Hume as the third and most radical of the so-called British Empiricists, after the English John Locke and the Anglo-Irish George Berkeley, both major influences on Hume's thought. He was also influenced by various Francophone writers such as Pierre Bayle, as well as various other figures on the Anglophone intellectual landscape such as Isaac Newton, Samuel Clarke, Francis Hutcheson, and Joseph Butler.

Career

Hume was born in Berwickshire, Scotland near Edinburgh and attended Edinburgh University. At first he considered a career in law, but came to have, in his words, "an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of philosophy and general learning."

Related Topics:
Berwickshire - Scotland - Edinburgh - Edinburgh University

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

He did some self-study in France, where he also completed A Treatise of Human Nature at the age of twenty-six. Although many scholars today consider the Treatise to be Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in the history of philosophy, the public in Britain did not at first agree. Hume himself described the (lack of) public reaction to the publication of the Treatise in 1739–40 by writing that the book "fell dead-born from the press."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After a few years of service to various political and military figures, Hume returned to his studies. After deciding that the Treatise had problems of style rather than of content, he reworked some of the material for more popular consumption in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. It did not prove extremely successful either but was more successful than the Treatise.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hume failed to gain chairs of philosophy in Edinburgh and in Glasgow, probably due to charges of atheism, and to the opposition of one of his chief critics, Thomas Reid.

Related Topics:
Edinburgh - Glasgow - Atheism - Thomas Reid

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

However, between philosophical pursuits, Hume did achieve literary fame as an essayist and historian. Attention to his works grew after the German philosopher Immanuel Kant credited Hume with awakening him from "dogmatic slumber" (circa 1770).

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Critics of religion during Hume's time needed to express themselves cautiously. Less than 15 years before Hume was born, an 18-year-old college student was put on trial for saying openly that he thought Christianity was nonsense, was convicted and hanged for blasphemy. Hume followed the common practice of expressing his views obliquely, through characters in dialogues. Hume did not acknowledge authorship of Treatise until the year of his death, in 1776. His Two Essays ("Of Suicide", "Of the Immortality of the Soul") and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion were held from publication until after his death (published 1778 and 1779, respectively), and they still bore neither author's nor publisher's name. So masterful was Hume in disguising his own views that debate continues to this day over whether Hume was actually a deist or an atheist.

Related Topics:
Deist - Atheist

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~