David Hume’s Followers (1,743)

David Hume

Born

in Edinburgh, Scotland

May 07, 1711

Died

August 25, 1776

Genre

Philosophy, Science, Religion & Spirituality

Influences

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David Hume was a Scottish historian, philosopher, economist, diplomat and essayist known today especially for his radical philosophical empiricism and scepticism.

In light of Hume's central role in the Scottish Enlightenment, and in the history of Western philosophy, Bryan Magee judged him as a philosopher "widely regarded as the greatest who has ever written in the English language." While Hume failed in his attempts to start a university career, he took part in various diplomatic and military missions of the time. He wrote The History of England which became a bestseller, and it became the standard history of England in its day.

His empirical approach places him with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others at the time as a Brit David Hume was a Scottish historian, philosopher, economist, diplomat and essayist known today especially for his radical philosophical empiricism and scepticism.

In light of Hume's central role in the Scottish Enlightenment, and in the history of Western philosophy, Bryan Magee judged him as a philosopher "widely regarded as the greatest who has ever written in the English language." While Hume failed in his attempts to start a university career, he took part in various diplomatic and military missions of the time. He wrote The History of England which became a bestseller, and it became the standard history of England in its day.

His empirical approach places him with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others at the time as a British Empiricist.

Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature. In opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably René Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behaviour. He also argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience. He argued that inductive reasoning and therefore causality cannot be justified rationally. Our assumptions in favour of these result from custom and constant conjunction rather than logic. He concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self.

Hume's compatibilist theory of free will proved extremely influential on subsequent moral philosophy. He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles, and expounded the is–ought problem.

Hume has proved extremely influential on subsequent western philosophy, especially on utilitarianism, logical positivism, William James, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive philosophy, theology and other movements and thinkers. In addition, according to philosopher Jerry Fodor, Hume's Treatise is "the founding document of cognitive science". Hume engaged with contemporary intellectual luminaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Boswell, and Adam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy). Immanuel Kant credited Hume with awakening him from "dogmatic slumbers". ...more

Combine Editions
David Hume’s books

Average rating: 3.93 · 60,007 ratings · 2,467 reviews · 3,174 distinct works • Similar authors

	An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 3.94 avg rating — 22,716 ratings — published 1748 — 156 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Treatise of Human Nature 3.95 avg rating — 12,792 ratings — published 1739 — 675 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume, J.B. Schneewind (Introduction), Eric Steinberg (Editor) 3.98 avg rating — 6,347 ratings — published 1751 — 344 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume, Richard H. Popkin (Editor) 3.96 avg rating — 6,148 ratings — published 1779 — 993 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion / The Natural History of Religion by David Hume, J.C.A. Gaskin (Editor) 4.03 avg rating — 1,102 ratings — published 1757 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Treatise on Human Nature, Volume 1 really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1,023 ratings — published 1739 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	On Suicide 3.54 avg rating — 1,098 ratings — published 1775 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: with Hume's Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature and A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh by David Hume, Eric Steinberg (Editor) 3.84 avg rating — 986 ratings — published 1748 — 44 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals 4.09 avg rating — 692 ratings — published 1751 — 87 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Natural History of Religion 3.55 avg rating — 639 ratings — published 1757 — 139 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by David Hume…

Series by David Hume

The History of England (6 books)
by

David Hume

3.82 avg rating — 713 ratings

Quotes by David Hume (?)

“Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.”
― David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste and Other Essays

tags: beauty, beholder, evil, god, perception, religion, religious-meaning

649 likes

“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
― David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature

tags: errors, philosophy, religion

452 likes

“No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.”
― David Hume, Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul

tags: death, endurance, inspirational, joy, life, optimism, strength, suicide, truth

410 likes

See all David Hume's quotes »

Polls

Which one is your favorite philosopher?

If it is one that is not on the list, comment below!

Friedrich Nietzsche

95 votes, 9.0%

Albert Camus

72 votes, 6.9%

Karl Marx

54 votes, 5.1%

Soren Kierkegaard

47 votes, 4.5%

Ludwig Wittgenstein

41 votes, 3.9%

Aristotle

39 votes, 3.7%

Immanuel Kant

38 votes, 3.6%

Plato

37 votes, 3.5%

Marcus Aurelius

34 votes, 3.2%

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

31 votes, 3.0%

Gilles Deleuze (write-in)

31 votes, 3.0%

Jean-Paul Sartre

29 votes, 2.8%

cumdump (write-in)

29 votes, 2.8%

Thomas Aquinas

26 votes, 2.5%

yes (write-in)

24 votes, 2.3%

Arthur Schopenhauer (write-in)

24 votes, 2.3%

spinoza (write-in)

23 votes, 2.2%

Simone de Beauvoir

22 votes, 2.1%

Fyodor dostoevsky (write-in)

21 votes, 2.0%

René Descartes

19 votes, 1.8%

Augustine of Hippo

18 votes, 1.7%

Socrates (write-in)

17 votes, 1.6%

Jesus of Nazareth (write-in)

17 votes, 1.6%

David Hume

15 votes, 1.4%

Jordan Peterson (write-in)

15 votes, 1.4%

Martin Heidegger

14 votes, 1.3%

Jesus (write-in)

14 votes, 1.3%

Hannah Arendt

11 votes, 1.0%

José Ortega y Gasset

11 votes, 1.0%

Epictetus (write-in)

11 votes, 1.0%

Bertrand Russell (write-in)

9 votes, 0.9%

Carl Jung (write-in)

9 votes, 0.9%

Olavo de Carvalho

8 votes, 0.8%

Julius Evola (write-in)

8 votes, 0.8%

Ibn Sina (write-in)

8 votes, 0.8%

Simone Weil (write-in)

8 votes, 0.8%

Gilbert Keith Chesterton

7 votes, 0.7%

Aristotle (write-in)

7 votes, 0.7%

Buddha (write-in)

6 votes, 0.6%

Sigmund Freud (write-in)

6 votes, 0.6%

Slavoj Zizek (write-in)

6 votes, 0.6%

Mário Ferreira dos Santos

5 votes, 0.5%

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (write-in)

5 votes, 0.5%

wine (write-in)

5 votes, 0.5%

Roger Scruton

4 votes, 0.4%

Charles Darwin (write-in)

4 votes, 0.4%

Ayn Rand (write-in)

4 votes, 0.4%

Nicholas Sparks (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Kosov (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Serb (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Hypatia

3 votes, 0.3%

Maimonides (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Rene Guenon (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Euclid (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Alfred Whitehead (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Judith Butler (write-in)

3 votes, 0.3%

Eric Voegelin

2 votes, 0.2%

William James (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Thomas Hobbes (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Albert Einstein (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Francis Bacon (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Alan Watts (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Edmund Husserl (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Jacques Derrida (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Max Stirner (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Michel Foucault (write-in)

2 votes, 0.2%

Michael Oakeshott

1 vote, 0.1%

John Dewey (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Henri Bergson (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

George Berkeley (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Heraclitus (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Teilhard de Chardin (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Parmenides (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Democritus (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Rudolf Carnap (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Lucretius (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Niccoló Machiavelli

1 vote, 0.1%

Paul Preciado (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Diogenes (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

immanuel kant (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Seneca (write-in)

1 vote, 0.1%

Joseph Campbell (write-in)

0 votes, 0.0%

Gottfried Leibniz (write-in)

0 votes, 0.0%

George Santayana (write-in)

0 votes, 0.0%

Voltaire (write-in)

0 votes, 0.0%

Jeremy Bentham (write-in)

0 votes, 0.0%

B. F. Skinner (write-in)

0 votes, 0.0%

Karl Popper (write-in)

0 votes, 0.0%

1050 total votes

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David Hume’s Followers (1,743)

David Hume

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Series by David Hume

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Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
David Hume’s books