David Hume
Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist
Who was David Hume?
David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist who is known for his highly influential system of empiricism, philosophical scepticism and metaphysical naturalism. Beginning with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Following John Locke, Hume rejected the existence of innate ideas, holding that all our ideas derive ultimately from impressions, but in his fork he distinguished relations of ideas, known a priori, from matters of fact, whose knowledge rests on experience.
Historical significance
This places him in the empiricist tradition of Locke and George Berkeley, while drawing his experimental method from Francis Bacon. Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified empirically; instead, they result from custom and mental habit.
