Hume, David (1711-1776)

Scottish philosopher whose Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) is a central text of British empiricism (the theory that experience is the only source of knowledge). Examining meticulously our modes of thinking, he concluded that they are more habitual than rational. Consequently, he not only rejected the possibility of knowlege that goes beyond the bounds of experience (speculative metaphysics), but also arrived at generally sceptical positions about reason, causation, necessity, identity, and the self.

Hume's law in moral philosophy states that it is never possible to deduce evaluative conclusions from factual premises; this has come to be known as the ‘is/ought problem’.

Hume became secretary to the British embassy in Paris in 1763. His History of Great Britain (1754-62) was popular within his own lifetime but A Treatise of Human Nature was indifferently received. However, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant claimed that Hume's scepticism woke him from his ‘dogmatic slumbers’. Among Hume's other publications is the Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (1751).