David Hume

David Hume (1711 CE–1776 CE) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist who stands as one of the most influential figures of the Western Enlightenment and the Scottish Enlightenment. Born in Edinburgh, Hume published his foundational work, A Treatise of Human Nature, in 1739 CE–1740 CE, attempting to introduce an empirical, scientific method into the study of human psychology and morality. When the Treatise failed to gain immediate traction, he recast his ideas into more accessible volumes: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748 CE) and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751 CE). Hume’s radical empiricism and thoroughgoing skepticism led him to challenge fundamental concepts of metaphysics and epistemology; he famously argued that human knowledge is derived entirely from sensory experience, that inductive reasoning lacks logical justification, and that the concept of causality is merely a psychological habit of association rather than an objective reality. He similarly revolutionized ethics by asserting that morality is rooted in sentiment and utility rather than abstract reason, coining the famous dictum that reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

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