David Hume

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David Hume (April 26, 1711 – August 25, 1776*) was a Scottish philosopher and historian. Hume was one of the most important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment, along with friends Adam Smith and Thomas Reid. 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.

Historians most famously see Humean philosophy as a thoroughgoing form of skepticism, but many commentators have argued that the element of naturalism has no less importance in Hume's philosophy.

Hume was heavily influenced by empiricists John Locke and George Berkeley, along with Francophone writers such as Pierre Bayle, and various figures on the Anglophone intellectual landscape such as Isaac Newton, Samuel Clarke, Francis Hutcheson, and Joseph Butler.

The attempts to categorise Hume have reflected many of the current philosophical interests of their periods. They included "perhaps … only a very clever man" (Taylor, 1927*) , "positivist" (Russell, 1946*; Kolakowski, 1968*), "cynical conservative" (Stephen, 1962*), "materialist" (Anderson, 1966*), "realist" (Popper, 1970*), "phenomenologist" (Husserl, 1970*), "naturalist" (Stroud, 1977*), "idealist" (Ayer, 1980*), "empiricist" (Gregory, 1981*; Livingston, 1989*), "Pyrrhonian sceptic" (Flew, 1986*), "the prophet of the Wittgensteinian revolution" (Phillipson, 1989*), "neo-Hellenist", (Penelhum, 1993*), "the first post-sceptical philosopher of the early modern period" (Norton, 1993*), "radical perspectivalist" (Fogelin, 1993*). Hume’s own description of his position is one of "mitigated scepticism" (Hume, 1777, 162*).

• (N.B. The birthdate is May 7 by the Gregorian calendar of his time)

External links

• David Hume: Resources on Hume, including books, articles, and encyclopedia entries.
• Hume Society: An international scholarly society.
• Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
  • David Hume
  • Hume's Aesthetics
  • Hume's Moral Philosophy
  • Hume on Religion
• David Hume at James Boswell - a Guide
• READABLE versions of Treatise Book 1, First Enquiry, and Dialogues on Natural Religion

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