David Hume

1711–1776 · Scottish philosopher and historian

“Reason is the slave of the passions; the self is a bundle of perceptions”

Life and education

Born: 7 May 1711 (New Style), Edinburgh, Scotland
Died: 25 August 1776, Edinburgh
Education: University of Edinburgh (no degree)
Career: Keeper of the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh; secretary at the British embassy in Paris, and more

Philosopher and historian of the Scottish Enlightenment. The Treatise of Human Nature, written in his twenties, got almost no attention when it came out, but it's now seen as one of the most important philosophy books ever written in English. His religious skepticism cost him professorships at Edinburgh and Glasgow.

In his lifetime he was more famous as the author of The History of England. His skepticism and naturalism about causation, the self and morality woke Kant from his "dogmatic slumber" and still shape analytic philosophy and cognitive science today.

Timeline

1739–40A Treatise of Human Nature
1748An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding — "Of Liberty and Necessity"
1751An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
1754–62The History of England
1779Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (posthumous)

Big ideas

Reason is the slave of the passionsReason alone can't motivate action. Moral distinctions come from sentiment, not reason.

The self is a bundle of perceptionsLook inward and you only ever find a flow of perceptions — never a single self that holds them.

CompatibilismLiberty is the power to act according to your will, and it doesn't conflict with causal necessity. He also famously noted you can't derive an "ought" from an "is."

If you think like them…

If you're like Hume, you're suspicious of grand metaphysics and trust experience and feeling. You see morality as coming from human sympathy and sentiment rather than commands of reason, and you feel the "real me" is a looser flow than people think.

Free will

Free will is realFree will skeptic

Right action

ConsequentialismDeontology

What morality is

RealismAnti-realism

Mind & body

PhysicalismDualism

Being you

PsychologicalBodily

Rough positions on the five questions the quiz uses. These simplify each philosopher's actual views and are open to interpretation.

Thought experiments featuring them

Key works

A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40)
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751)
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)