David Hume

Lore & Background

Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified empirically; instead, they result from custom and mental habit. People never actually perceive that one event causes another but experience only the 'constant conjunction' of events. This problem of induction means that to draw any causal inferences from past experience, it is necessary to presuppose that the future will resemble the past; this metaphysical presupposition cannot itself be grounded in prior experience. An opponent of philosophical rationalists, Hume held that passions rather than reason govern human behaviour, proclaiming that 'Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.' Hume was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principle. He maintained an early commitment to naturalistic explanations of moral phenomena and is usually accepted by historians of European philosophy to have first clearly expounded the is–ought problem, or the idea that a statement of fact alone can never give rise to a normative conclusion of what ought to be done. Hume denied that people have an actual conception of the self, positing that they experience only a bundle of sensations and that the self is nothing more than this bundle of perceptions connected by an association of ideas. His compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom. His philosophy of religion, including his rejection of miracles and critique of the argument from design, was especially controversial.

In Their Own Story

Hume was born on 7 May 1711 as David Home in a tenement on the north side of Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. He was the second of two sons born to Catherine Home and Joseph Home of Chirnside. Joseph died just after David's second birthday. Catherine, who never re-married, raised the two brothers and their sister on her own. Hume changed his family name's spelling in 1734 because the surname 'Home' (pronounced 'Hume') was not well known in England. Hume never married and lived partly at his Chirnside family home in Berwickshire. He attended the University of Edinburgh at an unusually early age—either 12 or possibly as young as 10—at a time when 14 was the typical age. Initially, Hume considered a career in law, but he came to have 'an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of Philosophy and general Learning'. He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that 'there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books'. He did not graduate. At around age 18, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened up to him 'a new Scene of Thought', inspiring him 'to throw up every other Pleasure or Business to apply entirely to it'. From this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of 10 years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a mental breakdown, first starting with a coldness that lasted about nine months. Scurvy spots later broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose him with the 'Disease of the Learned'. Hume wrote that he 'went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills', taken along with a pint of claret every day. His health improved somewhat, but in 1731, he was afflicted with a ravenous appetite and palpitations. After eating well for a time, he went from being 'tall, lean and raw-bon'd' to being 'sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like.' Hume would become well known for being obese and having a fondness for good port and cheese.

Reader's Guide

Hume worked for four years on his first major work, A Treatise of Human Nature, completing it in 1738 at age 27. Books 1 and 2 were intended to 'try the taste of the public', leading to Book 3 Of Morals being published after he felt he had 'met with success'. Although many scholars today consider the Treatise to be Hume's most important work, critics in Great Britain at the time described it as 'abstract and unintelligible'. As Hume had spent most of his savings during those four years, he resolved 'to make a very rigid frugality supply [his] deficiency of fortune'. Despite the disappointment, Hume later wrote: 'Being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I soon recovered from the blow and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country.' There, he published the An Abstract of a Book lately Published as a summary of the main doctrines of the Treatise, without revealing its authorship. The Essays Moral and Political was published in 1741. In 1745, Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, but the position was given to William Cleghorn. During his lifetime, Hume was chiefly known as a historian and essayist, as his History of England became a bestseller, while his Treatise initially received little notice and his supposed atheism saw him passed over for university chairs. Hume left a legacy that affected utilitarianism, logical positivism, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology and many other fields and thinkers. Immanuel Kant credited Hume as the inspiration that had awakened him from his 'dogmatic slumbers'.

Did You Know?

• Hume changed his family name's spelling from 'Home' to 'Hume' in 1734 because the original was not well known in England.
• He attended the University of Edinburgh at age 10 or 12, when 14 was typical, and did not graduate.
• At around age 18, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened 'a new Scene of Thought' and inspired him to devote himself entirely to philosophy.
• Hume's physician diagnosed him with the 'Disease of the Learned' after scurvy spots broke out on his fingers.
• He described his 'love for literary fame' as his 'ruling passion' and judged his two late enquiries as his greatest literary and philosophical achievements.