The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Revolution in Hume's economic approach evidently resembles his other philosophies, in that he does not choose one side indefinitely, but sees gray in the situation []. and deduct the smaller number from the greater, in order to know the exact force of the superior evidence, david hume essay. Aesthetics and Morals in the Philosophy of David Hume. Welcome to Entity Street. Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing; and where they proceed not from some cause in the character and disposition of the person who performed them, they can neither redound to his honour, if good; nor infamy, david hume essay evil.
Introduction
David Hume — was born on April 26,in Edinburgh, Scotland. After studying at the University of Edinburgh and briefly considering a career david hume essay law, he embarked on a lifelong career as a moral philosopher, historian, and essayist. He is widely considered the leading intellectual figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, and his writings had a profound influence on moral philosophy and the social sciences. Hume is usually associated with the philosophical doctrine of empiricism, or the idea that all moral ideas can be traced back to sense impressions.
In addition to his major philosophical writings, which include A Treatise of Human Nature —An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandingand An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of MoralsHume is renowned for his Essays: Moral, Political and Literary — Preferring david hume essay affluence and stability of modern commercial societies over the ignorance, poverty, and discord of the classical republics of antiquity, Hume argued for the civilizing role of commerce and criticized mercantilist prejudices holding that the wealth of some nations must come at the expense of others, david hume essay. His essays on political parties are credited with influencing the thought of James Madison, particularly Federalist No. Hume was also renowned as the author of the magisterial History of England —published in six volumes and widely considered the definitive history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the Glorious Revolution of Hume is often characterized as a political conservative, but he resists this kind of easy categorization.
He was a moderate who refused to side with either Whigs or David hume essay, maintaining there was something partially true about each of their claims. Hume was, david hume essay, however, deeply critical of wholesale attempts to reform long-standing customs in light of reason or ideal blueprints of society, and he counseled people to obey existing governments except in cases of extreme tyranny. Neither liberty nor authority is an absolute good in and of itself, Hume maintained, david hume essay, but the possibility of free government hinges on achieving a proper balance between these two principles. This example David Hume Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only.
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He was the second of two sons to Joseph Home of Chirnside in the County of Berwick , an advocate of Ninewells , and wife Catherine Home née Falconer , daughter of Sir David Falconer of Newton and wife Mary Falconer née Norvell. Catherine, who never remarried, raised the two brothers and their sister on her own. Hume changed his family name's spelling in , as the surname 'Home' pronounced like 'Hume' was not well-known in England. Hume never married and lived partly at his Chirnside family home in Berwickshire , which had belonged to the family since the 16th century.
His finances as a young man were very "slender", as his family was not rich and, as a younger son, he had little patrimony to live on. Hume 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 , because of his family. However, in his words, he came to have: [19]. He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in that "there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books".
Aged 18 or so, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened him up to "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—which he attributed to a "Laziness of Temper"—that lasted about nine months. Later, some scurvy spots broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose Hume as suffering from 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.
He also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning. After eating well for a time, he went from being "tall, lean and raw-bon'd" to being "sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like. Although having noble ancestry, at 25 years of age, Hume had no source of income and no learned profession. As was common at his time, he became a merchant 's assistant, despite having to leave his native Scotland. He travelled via Bristol to La Flèche in Anjou , France. There he had frequent discourse with the Jesuits of the College of La Flèche. Hume was derailed in his attempts to start a university career by protests over his alleged " atheism ", [30] [31] also lamenting that his literary debut, A Treatise of Human Nature , "fell dead-born from the press.
His tenure there, and the access to research materials it provided, resulted in Hume's writing the massive six-volume The History of England , which became a bestseller and the standard history of England in its day. For over 60 years, Hume was the dominant interpreter of English history. Though he was only 23 years old when starting this work, it is now regarded as one of the most important in the history of Western philosophy. Hume worked for four years on his first major work, A Treatise of Human Nature , subtitled "Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects", completing it in at the age of Although many scholars today consider the Treatise to be Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in Western philosophy, critics in Great Britain at the time described it as "abstract and unintelligible".
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. After the publication of Essays Moral and Political in —included in the later edition as Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary —Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. However, the position was given to William Cleghorn [39] after Edinburgh ministers petitioned the town council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an atheist. In , during the Jacobite risings , Hume tutored the Marquess of Annandale —92 , an engagement that ended in disarray after about a year.
During this time he was also involved with the Canongate Theatre through his friend John Home , a preacher. In this context, he associated with Lord Monboddo and other thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh. From , Hume served for three years as secretary to General James St Clair , who was envoy to the courts of Turin and Vienna. At that time Hume also wrote Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding , later published as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Often called the First Enquiry , it proved little more successful than the Treatise , perhaps because of the publication of his short autobiography My Own Life , which "made friends difficult for the first Enquiry".
In he went to live with his brother in the countryside, although he continued to associate with the aforementioned Scottish Enlightenment figures. Hume's religious views were often suspect and, in the s, it was necessary for his friends to avert a trial against him on the charge of heresy , specifically in an ecclesiastical court. However, he "would not have come and could not be forced to attend if he said he was not a member of the Established Church". By this time, he had published the Philosophical Essays , which were decidedly anti-religious. Even Adam Smith , his personal friend who had vacated the Glasgow philosophy chair, was against his appointment out of concern that public opinion would be against it. Hume returned to Edinburgh in In the following year, the Faculty of Advocates hired him to be their Librarian, a job in which he would receive little to no pay, but which nonetheless gave him "the command of a large library".
Eventually, with the publication of his six-volume The History of England between and , Hume achieved the fame that he coveted. Hume was also a longtime friend of bookseller Andrew Millar , who sold Hume's History after acquiring the rights from Scottish bookseller Gavin Hamilton [49] , although the relationship was sometimes complicated. Letters between them illuminate both men's interest in the success of the History. In Hume moved from Jack's Land on the Canongate to James Court on the Lawnmarket. He sold the house to James Boswell in From to , Hume was invited to attend Lord Hertford in Paris , where he became secretary to the British embassy. In , Hume served as British Chargé d'affaires , writing "despatches to the British Secretary of State ".
According to Dr. Felix Waldmann, a former Hume Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Hume's "puckish scepticism about the existence of religious miracles played a significant part in defining the critical outlook which underpins the practice of modern science. But his views served to reinforce the institution of racialised slavery in the later 18th century. In , Hume left Paris to accompany Jean-Jacques Rousseau to England. Once there, he and Rousseau fell out , [57] leaving Hume sufficiently worried about the damage to his reputation from the quarrel with Rousseau. So much so, that Hume would author an account of the dispute, titling it "A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr.
Hume and Mr. Rousseau ". In , Hume was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Here, he wrote that he was given "all the secrets of the Kingdom". In he returned to James' Court in Edinburgh, where he would live from until his death in Hume's nephew and namesake, David Hume of Ninewells — , was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in He was a Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University and rose to be Principal Clerk of Session in the Scottish High Court and Baron of the Exchequer. He is buried with his uncle in Old Calton Cemetery. In the last year of his life, Hume wrote an extremely brief autobiographical essay titled "My Own Life", [17] summing up his entire life in "fewer than 5 pages"; [60] it contains many interesting judgments that have been of enduring interest to subsequent readers of Hume.
Anyone hankering for startling revelations or amusing anecdotes had better look elsewhere. Despite condemning vanity as a dangerous passion, [63] in his autobiography Hume confesses his belief that the "love of literary fame" had served as his "ruling passion" in life, and claims that this desire "never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments". One such disappointment Hume discusses in this account is in the initial literary reception of the Treatise , which he claims to have overcome by means of the success of the Essays : "the work was favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disappointment". Hume, in his own retrospective judgment, argues that his philosophical debut's apparent failure "had proceeded more from the manner than the matter".
He thus suggests that "I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early. Hume also provides an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works: that "my Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion who ought not to judge on that subject is of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best. He goes on to profess of his character: "My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct. I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.
Diarist and biographer James Boswell saw Hume a few weeks before his death from a form of abdominal cancer. Hume told him that he sincerely believed it a "most unreasonable fancy" that there might be life after death. David Hume died at the southwest corner of St. Andrew's Square in Edinburgh's New Town , at what is now 21 Saint David Street. His tomb stands, as he wished it, on the southwestern slope of Calton Hill , in the Old Calton Cemetery. Adam Smith later recounted Hume's amusing speculation that he might ask Charon , Hades ' ferryman, to allow him a few more years of life in order to see "the downfall of some of the prevailing systems of superstition".
The ferryman replied, "You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many hundred years. A Treatise of Human Nature begins with the introduction: "'Tis evident, that all the sciences have a relation, more or less, to human nature. Until recently, Hume was seen as a forerunner of logical positivism , a form of anti- metaphysical empiricism. According to the logical positivists in summary of their verification principle , unless a statement could be verified by experience, or else was true or false by definition i. either tautological or contradictory , then it was meaningless. Hume, on this view, was a proto-positivist, who, in his philosophical writings, attempted to demonstrate the ways in which ordinary propositions about objects, causal relations, the self, and so on, are semantically equivalent to propositions about one's experiences.
Many commentators have since rejected this understanding of Humean empiricism, stressing an epistemological rather than a semantic reading of his project. Hume thought that we can form beliefs about that which extends beyond any possible experience, through the operation of faculties such as custom and the imagination, but he was sceptical about claims to knowledge on this basis. A central doctrine of Hume's philosophy, stated in the very first lines of the Treatise of Human Nature , is that the mind consists of perceptions, or the mental objects which are present to it, and which divide into two categories: "All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call impressions and ideas.
Allison calls the "FLV criterion. For example, experiencing the painful sensation of touching a hot pan's handle is more forceful than simply thinking about touching a hot pan. According to Hume, impressions are meant to be the original form of all our ideas. From this, Don Garrett has coined the term copy principle, [72] referring to Hume's doctrine that all ideas are ultimately copied from some original impression, whether it be a passion or sensation, from which they derive. After establishing the forcefulness of impressions and ideas, these two categories are further broken down into simple and complex : "simple perceptions or impressions and ideas are such as admit of no distinction nor separation", whereas "the complex are the contrary to these, and may be distinguished into parts".
Similarly, a person experiences a variety of taste-sensations, tactile-sensations, and smell-sensations when biting into an apple, with the overall sensation—again, a complex impression. Thinking about an apple allows a person to form complex ideas, which are made of similar parts as the complex impressions they were developed from, but which are also less forceful. Hume believes that complex perceptions can be broken down into smaller and smaller parts until perceptions are reached that have no parts of their own, and these perceptions are thus referred to as simple. Regardless of how boundless it may seem, a person's imagination is confined to the mind's ability to recombine the information it has already acquired from the body's sensory experience the ideas that have been derived from impressions.
In addition, "as our imagination takes our most basic ideas and leads us to form new ones, it is directed by three principles of association, namely, resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect": [74]. Hume elaborates more on the last principle, explaining that, when somebody observes that one object or event consistently produces the same object or event, that results in "an expectation that a particular event a 'cause' will be followed by another event an 'effect' previously and constantly associated with it". renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past".
In other words: [76]. Experience cannot establish a necessary connection between cause and effect, because we can imagine without contradiction a case where the cause does not produce its usual effect…the reason why we mistakenly infer that there is something in the cause that necessarily produces its effect is because our past experiences have habituated us to think in this way. Continuing this idea, Hume argues that "only in the pure realm of ideas, logic, and mathematics, not contingent on the direct sense awareness of reality, [can] causation safely…be applied—all other sciences are reduced to probability".
The cornerstone of Hume's epistemology is the problem of induction. This may be the area of Hume's thought where his scepticism about human powers of reason is most pronounced. As Hume wrote, induction concerns how things behave when they go "beyond the present testimony of the senses, or the records of our memory". With regard to demonstrative reasoning, Hume argues that the uniformity principle cannot be demonstrated, as it is "consistent and conceivable" that nature might stop being regular. As this is using the very sort of reasoning induction that is under question, it would be circular reasoning.
Hume's solution to this problem is to argue that, rather than reason, natural instinct explains the human practice of making inductive inferences. He asserts that "Nature, by an absolute and uncontroulable [ sic ] necessity has determin'd us to judge as well as to breathe and feel. Kenyon writes: [83]. Reason might manage to raise a doubt about the truth of a conclusion of natural inductive inference just for a moment but the sheer agreeableness of animal faith will protect us from excessive caution and sterile suspension of belief. Others, such as Charles Sanders Peirce , have demurred from Hume's solution, [84] while some, such as Kant and Karl Popper , have thought that Hume's analysis has "posed a most fundamental challenge to all human knowledge claims".
The notion of causation is closely linked to the problem of induction. According to Hume, we reason inductively by associating constantly conjoined events. It is the mental act of association that is the basis of our concept of causation. At least three interpretations of Hume's theory of causation are represented in the literature: [86]. Hume acknowledged that there are events constantly unfolding, and humanity cannot guarantee that these events are caused by prior events or are independent instances. He opposed the widely accepted theory of causation that 'all events have a specific course or reason'. Therefore, Hume crafted his own theory of causation, formed through his empiricist and sceptic beliefs. He split causation into two realms: "All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas, and Matters of Fact.
Matters of Fact are dependent on the observer and experience. They are often not universally held to be true among multiple persons. Hume was an Empiricist, meaning he believed "causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience". Hume's separation between Matters of Fact and Relations of Ideas is often referred to as " Hume's fork. Hume explains his theory of causation and causal inference by division into three different parts. In these three branches he explains his ideas and compares and contrasts his views to his predecessors. These branches are the Critical Phase, the Constructive Phase, and Belief. Next, he uses the Constructive Phase to resolve any doubts the reader may have had while observing the Critical Phase.
Associating ideas has become second nature to the human mind. It "makes us expect for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past". This leads him to the third branch of causal inference, Belief. Belief is what drives the human mind to hold that expectancy of the future is based on past experience. Throughout his explanation of causal inference, Hume is arguing that the future is not certain to be repetition of the past and that the only way to justify induction is through uniformity. The logical positivist interpretation is that Hume analyses causal propositions, such as "A causes B", in terms of regularities in perception: "A causes B" is equivalent to "Whenever A-type events happen, B-type ones follow", where "whenever" refers to all possible perceptions.
Power and necessity…are…qualities of perceptions, not of objects…felt by the soul and not perceiv'd externally in bodies. This view is rejected by sceptical realists , who argue that Hume thought that causation amounts to more than just the regular succession of events. Shall we rest contented with these two relations of contiguity and succession, as affording a complete idea of causation? By no means…there is a necessary connexion to be taken into consideration. Angela Coventry writes that, for Hume, "there is nothing in any particular instance of cause and effect involving external objects which suggests the idea of power or necessary connection" and "we are ignorant of the powers that operate between objects".
It has been argued that, while Hume did not think that causation is reducible to pure regularity, he was not a fully fledged realist either. Simon Blackburn calls this a quasi-realist reading, [93] saying that "Someone talking of cause is voicing a distinct mental set: he is by no means in the same state as someone merely describing regular sequences. Empiricist philosophers, such as Hume and Berkeley , favoured the bundle theory of personal identity. According to Hume: [70]. For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception.
When my perceptions are removed for any time, as by sound sleep; so long I am insensible of myself, and may truly be said not to exist. This view is supported by, for example, positivist interpreters, who have seen Hume as suggesting that terms such as "self", "person", or "mind" refer to collections of "sense-contents". However, some philosophers have criticised Hume's bundle-theory interpretation of personal identity. They argue that distinct selves can have perceptions that stand in relation to similarity and causality. Thus, perceptions must already come parcelled into distinct "bundles" before they can be associated according to the relations of similarity and causality. In other words, the mind must already possess a unity that cannot be generated, or constituted, by these relations alone.
Since the bundle-theory interpretation portrays Hume as answering an ontological question, philosophers like Galen Strawson see Hume as not very concerned with such questions and have queried whether this view is really Hume's. Instead, Strawson suggests that Hume might have been answering an epistemological question about the causal origin of our concept of the self. Corliss Swain notes that "Commentators agree that if Hume did find some new problem" when he reviewed the section on personal identity, "he wasn't forthcoming about its nature in the Appendix. Rather than reducing the self to a bundle of perceptions, Hume rejects the idea of the self altogether. On this interpretation, Hume is proposing a " no-self theory " and thus has much in common with Buddhist thought see anattā.
Practical reason relates to whether standards or principles exist that are also authoritative for all rational beings, dictating people's intentions and actions. Hume is mainly considered an anti-rationalist, denying the possibility for practical reason, although other philosophers such as Christine Korsgaard , Jean Hampton , and Elijah Millgram claim that Hume is not so much of an anti-rationalist as he is just a sceptic of practical reason. Hume denied the existence of practical reason as a principle because he claimed reason does not have any effect on morality, since morality is capable of producing effects in people that reason alone cannot create. Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions.
Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason. Since practical reason is supposed to regulate our actions in theory , Hume denied practical reason on the grounds that reason cannot directly oppose passions. As Hume puts it, "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them. Practical reason is also concerned with the value of actions rather than the truth of propositions, [] so Hume believed that reason's shortcoming of affecting morality proved that practical reason could not be authoritative for all rational beings, since morality was essential for dictating people's intentions and actions. Hume's writings on ethics began in the Treatise and were refined in his An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals He understood feeling , rather than knowing , as that which governs ethical actions, stating that "moral decisions are grounded in moral sentiment.
Reason itself is utterly impotent in this particular. Hume's moral sentimentalism was shared by his close friend Adam Smith , [] [ failed verification ] and the two were mutually influenced by the moral reflections of their older contemporary, Francis Hutcheson. Hume also put forward the is—ought problem , later known as Hume's Law , [] denying the possibility of logically deriving what ought to be from what is. According to the Treatise , in every system of morality that Hume has read, the author begins by stating facts about the world as it is but always ends up suddenly referring to what ought to be the case. Hume demands that a reason should be given for inferring what ought to be the case, from what is the case. This is because it "seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others.
Hume's theory of ethics has been influential in modern-day meta-ethical theory , [] helping to inspire emotivism , [] and ethical expressivism and non-cognitivism , [] [ failed verification ] as well as Allan Gibbard 's general theory of moral judgment and judgments of rationality. Hume's ideas about aesthetics and the theory of art are spread throughout his works, but are particularly connected with his ethical writings, and also the essays " Of the Standard of Taste " and " Of Tragedy " His views are rooted in the work of Joseph Addison and Francis Hutcheson.
In "Standard of Taste", Hume argues that no rules can be drawn up about what is a tasteful object. However, a reliable critic of taste can be recognised as objective, sensible and unprejudiced, and as having extensive experience. Hume was concerned with the way spectators find pleasure in the sorrow and anxiety depicted in a tragedy. He argued that this was because the spectator is aware that he is witnessing a dramatic performance. There is pleasure in realising that the terrible events that are being shown are actually fiction. Hume, along with Thomas Hobbes , is cited as a classical compatibilist about the notions of freedom and determinism. Hume, on this point, was influenced greatly by the scientific revolution, particularly by Sir Isaac Newton. He wrote: "From this circumstance alone, that a controversy has been long kept on foot…we may presume that there is some ambiguity in the expression," and that different disputants use different meanings for the same terms.
Hume defines the concept of necessity as "the uniformity, observable in the operations of nature; where similar objects are constantly conjoined together," [] and liberty as "a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will. For if our actions were not necessitated in the above sense, they would "have so little in connexion with motives, inclinations and circumstances, that one does not follow with a certain degree of uniformity from the other. Moreover, Hume goes on to argue that in order to be held morally responsible , it is required that our behaviour be caused or necessitated, for, as he wrote: [].
Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing; and where they proceed not from some cause in the character and disposition of the person who performed them, they can neither redound to his honour, if good; nor infamy, if evil. Hume describes the link between causality and our capacity to rationally make a decision from this an inference of the mind. Human beings assess a situation based upon certain predetermined events and from that form a choice. Hume believes that this choice is made spontaneously. Hume calls this form of decision making the liberty of spontaneity. Education writer Richard Wright considers that Hume's position rejects a famous moral puzzle attributed to French philosopher Jean Buridan.
The Buridan's ass puzzle describes a donkey that is hungry. This donkey has separate bales of hay on both sides, which are of equal distances from him. The problem concerns which bale the donkey chooses. Buridan was said to believe that the donkey would die, because he has no autonomy. The donkey is incapable of forming a rational decision as there is no motive to choose one bale of hay over the other. However, human beings are different, because a human who is placed in a position where he is forced to choose one loaf of bread over another will make a decision to take one in lieu of the other.
For Buridan, humans have the capacity of autonomy, and he recognises the choice that is ultimately made will be based on chance, as both loaves of bread are exactly the same. However, Wright says that Hume completely rejects this notion, arguing that a human will spontaneously act in such a situation because he is faced with impending death if he fails to do so. Such a decision is not made on the basis of chance, but rather on necessity and spontaneity, given the prior predetermined events leading up to the predicament. Hume's argument is supported by modern-day compatibilists such as R. Hobart , a pseudonym of philosopher Dickinson S. Strawson argued that the issue of whether we hold one another morally responsible does not ultimately depend on the truth or falsity of a metaphysical thesis such as determinism.
This is because our so holding one another is a non-rational human sentiment that is not predicated on such theses. Philosopher Paul Russell contends that Hume wrote "on almost every central question in the philosophy of religion", and that these writings "are among the most important and influential contributions on this topic. He went on to suggest that all religious belief "traces, in the end, to dread of the unknown". Although he wrote a great deal about religion, Hume's personal views have been the subject of much debate. The best theologian he ever met, he used to say, was the old Edinburgh fishwife who, having recognized him as Hume the atheist, refused to pull him out of the bog into which he had fallen until he declared he was a Christian and repeated the Lord's prayer. However, in works such as "Of Superstition and Enthusiasm", Hume specifically seems to support the standard religious views of his time and place.
In his Treatise of Human Nature , Hume wrote: "Generally speaking, the errors in religions are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous. Paul Russell writes that Hume was plainly sceptical about religious belief, although perhaps not to the extent of complete atheism. He suggests that Hume's position is best characterised by the term " irreligion ," [] while philosopher David O'Connor argues that Hume's final position was "weakly deistic ". For O'Connor, Hume's "position is deeply ironic. This is because, while inclining towards a weak form of deism , he seriously doubts that we can ever find a sufficiently favourable balance of evidence to justify accepting any religious position.
but he did not rule out all concepts of deity", and that "ambiguity suited his purposes, and this creates difficulty in definitively pinning down his final position on religion". One of the traditional topics of natural theology is that of the existence of God , and one of the a posteriori arguments for this is the argument from design or the teleological argument. The argument is that the existence of God can be proved by the design that is obvious in the complexity of the world, which Encyclopædia Britannica states is "the most popular", because it is: [] [ unreliable source? which identifies evidences of design in nature, inferring from them a divine designer The fact that the universe as a whole is a coherent and efficiently functioning system likewise, in this view, indicates a divine intelligence behind it.
In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , Hume wrote that the design argument seems to depend upon our experience, and its proponents "always suppose the universe, an effect quite singular and unparalleled, to be the proof of a Deity, a cause no less singular and unparalleled". Loeb notes that Hume is saying that only experience and observation can be our guide to making inferences about the conjunction between events. However, according to Hume: []. We observe neither God nor other universes, and hence no conjunction involving them. There is no observed conjunction to ground an inference either to extended objects or to God, as unobserved causes. Hume also criticised the argument in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion In this, he suggested that, even if the world is a more or less smoothly functioning system, this may only be a result of the "chance permutations of particles falling into a temporary or permanent self-sustaining order, which thus has the appearance of design".
A century later, the idea of order without design was rendered more plausible by Charles Darwin's discovery that the adaptations of the forms of life result from the natural selection of inherited characteristics. Madden, it is "Hume, rivaled only by Darwin, [who] has done the most to undermine in principle our confidence in arguments from design among all figures in the Western intellectual tradition". Finally, Hume discussed a version of the anthropic principle , which is the idea that theories of the universe are constrained by the need to allow for man's existence in it as an observer. Hume has his sceptical mouthpiece Philo suggest that there may have been many worlds, produced by an incompetent designer, whom he called a "stupid mechanic". In his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion , Hume wrote: [].
Many worlds might have been botched and bungled throughout an eternity, ere this system was struck out: much labour lost: many fruitless trials made: and a slow, but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making. American philosopher Daniel Dennett has suggested that this mechanical explanation of teleology, although "obviously an amusing philosophical fantasy", anticipated the notion of natural selection, the 'continued improvement' being like "any Darwinian selection algorithm". In his discussion of miracles , Hume argues that we should not believe miracles have occurred and that they do not therefore provide us with any reason to think God exists.
Hume says that we believe that an event that has frequently occurred is likely to occur again, but we also take into account those instances where the event did not occur: []. A wise man considers which side is supported by the greater number of experiments. A hundred instances or experiments on one side, and fifty on another, afford a doubtful expectation of any event; though a hundred uniform experiments, with only one that is contradictory, reasonably beget a pretty strong degree of assurance. In all cases, we must balance the opposite experiments and deduct the smaller number from the greater, in order to know the exact force of the superior evidence. Hume discusses the testimony of those who report miracles. He wrote that testimony might be doubted even from some great authority in case the facts themselves are not credible: "[T]he evidence, resulting from the testimony, admits of a diminution, greater or less, in proportion as the fact is more or less unusual.
Although Hume leaves open the possibility for miracles to occur and be reported, he offers various arguments against this ever having happened in history. Furthermore, people by nature enjoy relating miracles they have heard without caring for their veracity and thus miracles are easily transmitted even when false. Also, Hume notes that miracles seem to occur mostly in "ignorant and barbarous nations" [] and times, and the reason they do not occur in the civilised societies is such societies are not awed by what they know to be natural events.
Finally, the miracles of each religion argue against all other religions and their miracles, and so even if a proportion of all reported miracles across the world fit Hume's requirement for belief, the miracles of each religion make the other less likely. Hume was extremely pleased with his argument against miracles in his Enquiry. He states "I flatter myself, that I have discovered an argument of a like nature, which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusion, and consequently, will be useful as long as the world endures. It is a common sense notion of veracity based upon epistemological evidence, and founded on a principle of rationality, proportionality and reasonability.
The criterion for assessing Hume's belief system is based on the balance of probability whether something is more likely than not to have occurred. Since the weight of empirical experience contradicts the notion for the existence of miracles, such accounts should be treated with scepticism. Further, the myriad of accounts of miracles contradict one another, as some people who receive miracles will aim to prove the authority of Jesus, whereas others will aim to prove the authority of Muhammad or some other religious prophet or deity. These various differing accounts weaken the overall evidential power of miracles.
Despite all this, Hume observes that belief in miracles is popular, and that "the gazing populace… receive greedily, without examination, whatever soothes superstition, and promotes wonder. Critics have argued that Hume's position assumes the character of miracles and natural laws prior to any specific examination of miracle claims, thus it amounts to a subtle form of begging the question. To assume that testimony is a homogeneous reference group seems unwise- to compare private miracles with public miracles, unintellectual observers with intellectual observers and those who have little to gain and much to lose with those with much to gain and little to lose is not convincing to many.
Indeed, many have argued that miracles not only do not contradict the laws of nature, but require the laws of nature to be intelligible as miraculous, and thus subverting the law of nature. For example, William Adams remarks that "there must be an ordinary course of nature before anything can be extraordinary. There must be a stream before anything can be interrupted. This, in Hume's philosophy, was especially problematic. Little appreciated is the voluminous literature either foreshadowing Hume, in the likes of Thomas Sherlock [] or directly responding to and engaging with Hume- from William Paley , [] William Adams, [] John Douglas, [] John Leland , [] and George Campbell , [] among others. Regarding the latter, it is rumoured that, having read Campbell's Dissertation, Hume remarked that "the Scotch theologue had beaten him.
Hume's main argument concerning miracles is that miracles by definition are singular events that differ from the established laws of nature. Such natural laws are codified as a result of past experiences. Therefore, a miracle is a violation of all prior experience and thus incapable on this basis of reasonable belief. However, the probability that something has occurred in contradiction of all past experience should always be judged to be less than the probability that either ones senses have deceived one, or the person recounting the miraculous occurrence is lying or mistaken. Hume would say, all of which he had past experience of. For Hume, this refusal to grant credence does not guarantee correctness. He offers the example of an Indian Prince, who, having grown up in a hot country, refuses to believe that water has frozen.
By Hume's lights, this refusal is not wrong and the Prince "reasoned justly;" it is presumably only when he has had extensive experience of the freezing of water that he has warrant to believe that the event could occur. So for Hume, either the miraculous event will become a recurrent event or else it will never be rational to believe it occurred. The connection to religious belief is left unexplained throughout, except for the close of his discussion where Hume notes the reliance of Christianity upon testimony of miraculous occurrences. He makes an ironic remark that anyone who "is moved by faith to assent" to revealed testimony "is conscious of a continued miracle in his own person, which subverts all principles of his understanding, and gives him a determination to believe what is most contrary to custom and experience.
From to Hume published The History of England , a six-volume work, that extends according to its subtitle "From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in He argued that the quest for liberty was the highest standard for judging the past, and concluded that after considerable fluctuation, England at the time of his writing had achieved "the most entire system of liberty that was ever known amongst mankind". In its own day, moreover, it was an innovation, soaring high above its very few predecessors. In this work, Hume uses history to tell the story of the rise of England and what led to its greatness and the disastrous effects that religion has had on its progress. For Hume, the history of England's rise may give a template for others who would also like to rise to its current greatness.
Hume's The History of England was profoundly impacted by his Scottish background. The science of sociology, which is rooted in Scottish thinking of the eighteenth century, had never before been applied to British philosophical history. Because of his Scottish background, Hume was able to bring an outsider's lens to English history that the insulated English whigs lacked. Hume's coverage of the political upheavals of the 17th century relied in large part on the Earl of Clarendon 's History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England — Generally, Hume took a moderate royalist position and considered revolution unnecessary to achieve necessary reform.
Hume was considered a Tory historian, and emphasised religious differences more than constitutional issues. Laird Okie explains that "Hume preached the virtues of political moderation, but it was moderation with an anti-Whig, pro-royalist coloring. Tory belief that the Stuarts were no more high-handed than their Tudor predecessors". The debate between Tory and the Whig historians can be seen in the initial reception to Hume's History of England. The whig-dominated world of overwhelmingly disapproved of Hume's take on English history. In later editions of the book, Hume worked to "soften or expunge many villainous whig strokes which had crept into it.
Hume did not consider himself a pure Tory. Before , he was more akin to an "independent whig. Robert Roth argues that Hume's histories display his biases against Presbyterians and Puritans. Roth says his anti-Whig pro-monarchy position diminished the influence of his work, and that his emphasis on politics and religion led to a neglect of social and economic history. Hume was an early cultural historian of science. His short biographies of leading scientists explored the process of scientific change. He developed new ways of seeing scientists in the context of their times by looking at how they interacted with society and each other. He covers over forty scientists, with special attention paid to Francis Bacon , Robert Boyle , and Isaac Newton. Hume particularly praised William Harvey , writing about his treatise of the circulation of the blood: "Harvey is entitled to the glory of having made, by reasoning alone, without any mixture of accident, a capital discovery in one of the most important branches of science.
The History became a best-seller and made Hume a wealthy man who no longer had to take up salaried work for others. By , there were at least 50 editions as well as abridgements for students, and illustrated pocket editions, probably produced specifically for women. Hume's writings have been described as largely seminal to conservative theory, and he is considered a founding father of conservatism. If he is anything, he is a Hobbist. He also stresses throughout his political essays the importance of moderation in politics, public spirit, and regard to the community. Throughout the period of the American Revolution, Hume had varying views.
For instance, in he encouraged total revolt on the part of the Americans. In , he became certain that a revolution would take place and said that he believed in the American principle and wished the British government would let them be. Hume's influence on some of the Founders can be seen in Benjamin Franklin 's suggestion at the Philadelphia Convention of that no high office in any branch of government should receive a salary, which is a suggestion Hume had made in his emendation of James Harrington 's Oceana. The legacy of religious civil war in 18th-century Scotland, combined with the relatively recent memory of the and Jacobite risings, had fostered in Hume a distaste for enthusiasm and factionalism. These appeared to him to threaten the fragile and nascent political and social stability of a country that was deeply politically and religiously divided.
However, he also clarified that a republic must produce laws, while "monarchy, when absolute, contains even something repugnant to law. Hume expressed suspicion of attempts to reform society in ways that departed from long-established custom, and he counselled peoples not to resist their governments except in cases of the most egregious tyranny. My views of things are more conformable to Whig principles; my representations of persons to Tory prejudices. Canadian philosopher Neil McArthur writes that Hume believed that we should try to balance our demands for liberty with the need for strong authority, without sacrificing either. American historian Douglass Adair has argued that Hume was a major inspiration for James Madison 's writings, and the essay " Federalist No.
Hume offered his view on the best type of society in an essay titled "Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth", which lays out what he thought was the best form of government. He hoped that, "in some future age, an opportunity might be afforded of reducing the theory to practice, either by a dissolution of some old government, or by the combination of men to form a new one, in some distant part of the world". He defended a strict separation of powers , decentralisation , extending the franchise to anyone who held property of value and limiting the power of the clergy.
The system of the Swiss militia was proposed as the best form of protection. Elections were to take place on an annual basis and representatives were to be unpaid. In the political analysis of philosopher George Holland Sabine , the scepticism of Hume extended to the doctrine of government by consent. He notes that "allegiance is a habit enforced by education and consequently as much a part of human nature as any other motive. In the s, Hume was critical of British policies toward the American colonies and advocated for American independence. He wrote in that "our union with America…in the nature of things, cannot long subsist.
Hume expressed his economic views in his Political Discourses , which were incorporated in Essays and Treatises as Part II of Essays, Moral and Political. However, he introduced several new ideas around which the "classical economics" of the 18th century was built. This includes ideas on private property , inflation, and foreign trade. In contrast to Locke , Hume believes that private property is not a natural right. Hume argues it is justified, because resources are limited. Private property would be an unjustified, "idle ceremonial," if all goods were unlimited and available freely. Perfect equality would thus lead to impoverishment. David Hume anticipated modern monetarism.
First, Hume contributed to the theory of quantity and of interest rate. Hume has been credited with being the first to prove that, on an abstract level, there is no quantifiable amount of nominal money that a country needs to thrive. He understood that there was a difference between nominal and real money. Second, Hume has a theory of causation which fits in with the Chicago-school " black box " approach. According to Hume, cause and effect are related only through correlation. Hume shared the belief with modern monetarists that changes in the supply of money can affect consumption and investment. Lastly, Hume was a vocal advocate of a stable private sector , though also having some non-monetarist aspects to his economic philosophy.
Having a stated preference for rising prices, for instance, Hume considered government debt to be a sort of substitute for actual money, referring to such debt as "a kind of paper credit. Hume's economic approach evidently resembles his other philosophies, in that he does not choose one side indefinitely, but sees gray in the situation []. Due to Hume's vast influence on contemporary philosophy, a large number of approaches in contemporary philosophy and cognitive science are today called " Humean. The writings of Thomas Reid , a Scottish philosopher and contemporary of Hume, were often critical of Hume's scepticism.
Reid formulated his common sense philosophy, in part, as a reaction against Hume's views. Hume influenced, and was influenced by, the Christian philosopher Joseph Butler. Hume was impressed by Butler's way of thinking about religion, and Butler may well have been influenced by Hume's writings. Attention to Hume's philosophical works grew after the German philosopher Immanuel Kant , in his Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics , credited Hume with awakening him from his "dogmatic slumber. According to Arthur Schopenhauer , "there is more to be learned from each page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel , Herbart and Schleiermacher taken together. Ayer , while introducing his classic exposition of logical positivism in , claimed: [].
The views which are put forward in this treatise derive from…doctrines…which are themselves the logical outcome of the empiricism of Berkeley and David Hume. Albert Einstein , in , wrote that he was inspired by Hume's positivism when formulating his theory of special relativity. Hume's problem of induction was also of fundamental importance to the philosophy of Karl Popper. In his autobiography, Unended Quest , he wrote: "Knowledge is objective ; and it is hypothetical or conjectural. This way of looking at the problem made it possible for me to reformulate Hume's problem of induction. I approached the problem of induction through Hume. Hume, I felt, was perfectly right in pointing out that induction cannot be logically justified.
Hume's rationalism in religious subjects influenced, via German-Scottish theologian Johann Joachim Spalding , the German neology school and rational theology , and contributed to the transformation of German theology in the age of enlightenment. Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard adopted "Hume's suggestion that the role of reason is not to make us wise but to reveal our ignorance," though taking it as a reason for the necessity of religious faith, or fideism. The "fact that Christianity is contrary to reason…is the necessary precondition for true faith. According to philosopher Jerry Fodor , Hume's Treatise is "the founding document of cognitive science.
Hume engaged with contemporary intellectuals including Jean-Jacques Rousseau , James Boswell , and Adam Smith who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy. Morris and Brown write that Hume is "generally regarded as one of the most important philosophers to write in English. In September , the David Hume Tower, a University of Edinburgh building, was renamed to 40 George Square ; this was following a campaign led by students of the university to rename it, in objection to Hume's writings related to race. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Scottish philosopher, economist and historian — For other people named David Hume, see David Hume disambiguation.
Edinburgh , Scotland. Scottish Enlightenment Naturalism [1] Scepticism Empiricism Irreligion Foundationalism [2] Newtonianism [3] Conceptualism [4] Indirect realism [5] Correspondence theory of truth [6] Moral sentimentalism Conservatism [7]. Epistemology Metaphysics. Ethics Aesthetics. Bayle Berkeley Cicero Hobbes Hutcheson Locke Malebranche [8] Newton Rousseau Smith. iv, section 6. See also: is—ought problem. Main article: Of Miracles. Cultural Fiscal Green Liberal Libertarian National Paternalistic Pragmatic Progressive Populist Social Traditionalist. Civil society Communitarianism Complementarianism Cultural heritage Familism Family values Natural law Natural order Private property Rule of law Solidarity Tradition.
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Rational choice theory Game theory Neoclassical economics Population ethics Effective altruism. Conservatism portal Philosophy portal. Age of reason George Anderson Human science Hume Studies Hume's principle Mencius Scientific scepticism The Missing Shade of Blue. In modern parlance, demonstration may be termed deductive reasoning , while probability may be termed inductive reasoning. Millican, Peter. Hume, Induction and Probability. Leeds: University of Leeds. Archived from the original on 20 October Retrieved 6 June and P. Hume Connecticut: Archon Books. Stanford: Metaphysics Research Lab. Retrieved 18 May Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Retrieved 19 August David Hume and the culture of Scottish Newtonianism : methodology and ideology in Enlightenment inquiry. ISBN OCLC In Zalta, Edward N. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University — via Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Muller, ed. Conservatism: An Anthology of Social and Political Thought from David Hume to the Present. Princeton U. Library Quarterly 36 April : 88— The Roots of Romanticism 2nd ed. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Hume reprint ed. London: Routledge. Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Archived from the original on 13 August Also available via Rutgers University. Oxford: Oxford University Press. doi : George Cheyne, Chevalier Ramsay, and Hume's Letter to a Physician.
Hume , English Men of Letters Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , edited by P. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. History and the Enlightenment. Yale University Press. Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects 2. JSTOR Reason, Grace, and Sentiment: A Study of the Language of Religion and Ethics in England, — 2. Retrieved 2 December The Enlightenment and the Book: Scottish Authors and Their Publishers in Eighteenth-Century Britain, Ireland, and Americ a , Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology Series.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Archived from the original on 15 January Retrieved 1 June Mossner, eds. New Letters of David Hume. Texas Studies in Literature and Language. A Bibliography of Hume's Writings and Early Responses. Bristol: Thoemmes Press. Further Letters of David Hume. Edinburgh: Edinburgh Bibliographical Society. The Scotsman. Retrieved 14 September de Hondt, trans. A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr. Rousseau: with the letters that passed between them during their controversy. Available in full text. Retrieved 19 May The Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Australasian Journal of Philosophy. Journal of Scottish Philosophy. ISSN S2CID Pottle, eds. Boswell in Extremes, New York, McGraw-Hill. New York: McGraw Hill. OL M. LCCN to William Strathan, Esq. xix—xxiv in The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Revolution in 1. London: Thomas Cadell and Longman. A Treatise of Human Nature 1. London: John Noon. A History of Philosophy 6. Lay summary via Google Books. Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy. Custom and Reason in Hume: A Kantian Reading of the First Book of the Treatise. Shane Drefcinski. US: University of Wisconsin—Platteville. Archived 9 May at the Wayback Machine. In Masterplots 4th ed. Ayer , pp.
Hume Studies. Archived from the original PDF on 17 June Retrieved 27 May Retrieved 29 April VII and Sect VIII, pp. Hobart , p. The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Winter ed. Fides et Historia. XXXV : 49— Also available: Full text and Liberty Fund edition. The Riddle of Hume's Treatise: Skepticism, Naturalism, and Irreligion. Hume's Essay on miracles. David Hume — was born on April 26, , in Edinburgh, Scotland. After studying at the University of Edinburgh and briefly considering a career in law, he embarked on a lifelong career as a moral philosopher, historian, and essayist.
He is widely considered the leading intellectual figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, and his writings had a profound influence on moral philosophy and the social sciences. Hume is usually associated with the philosophical doctrine of empiricism, or the idea that all moral ideas can be traced back to sense impressions. In addition to his major philosophical writings, which include A Treatise of Human Nature — , An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding , and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals , Hume is renowned for his Essays: Moral, Political and Literary — Preferring the affluence and stability of modern commercial societies over the ignorance, poverty, and discord of the classical republics of antiquity, Hume argued for the civilizing role of commerce and criticized mercantilist prejudices holding that the wealth of some nations must come at the expense of others.
His essays on political parties are credited with influencing the thought of James Madison, particularly Federalist No. Hume was also renowned as the author of the magisterial History of England — , published in six volumes and widely considered the definitive history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the Glorious Revolution of Hume is often characterized as a political conservative, but he resists this kind of easy categorization. He was a moderate who refused to side with either Whigs or Tories, maintaining there was something partially true about each of their claims. Hume was, however, deeply critical of wholesale attempts to reform long-standing customs in light of reason or ideal blueprints of society, and he counseled people to obey existing governments except in cases of extreme tyranny.
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