
By: Todd Rourke
Re: David Hume

HUME, David (1711-76). A Scottish philosopher and historian,
David  Hume  was  a founder of the skeptical,  or  agnostic,
school  of  philosophy.  He  had  a  profound  influence  on
European intellectual life.

    David Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, on April  26
(Old  Style), 1711. His father, Joseph Hume (or  Home),  and
his  mother,  Katherine Falconer, had grown up  together  as
stepbrother and stepsister on the family estate of Ninewells
in  Berwickshire.  Under the system of primogeniture  Hume's
older brother was heir to the estate.

    David  Hume  was  expected by his  family  to  follow  a
traditional career in law. By the age of 18, however,  after
attending the University of Edinburgh from 1724 to 1726  and
finding  law  distasteful, he enthusiastically plunged  into
the  study of literature and philosophy. Hume later observed
that  his  studies were "the ruling passion of my life,  and
the great source of my enjoyments."

    From  1734 to 1737 Hume lived in France. There he  wrote
his  first  work,  'A  Treatise of  Human  Nature'.  He  was
disappointed by its hostile reception and later dismissed it
as  an  immature  work that did not accurately  reflect  his
views. In spite of this, the part on understanding continues
to  be  widely  read.  Hume's  more  immediately  successful
'Essays, Moral and Political' was published in 1741-42 after
he had returned to Ninewells.

    For a while Hume worked as a tutor. In the late 1740s he
served  as secretary to General James St. Clair on  military
missions   in   Brittany,  Vienna,  and  Turin.   With   the
publication of 'Political Discourses' in 1752, he began  his
rise to international fame.

    In 1751 Hume had been appointed keeper of the library of
the  Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. Using its historical
collection  for  his  research, he wrote  his  spectacularly
successful 'A History of England', published in four volumes
between  1754  and  1761. For decades  this  history,  or  a
shortened  version  of it, was used as a  standard  text  in
English schools.

    Hume  served  for some years as secretary  and  then  as
charge  d'affaires  in  the British  embassy  in  Paris.  He
returned  to  London  in  1766 and worked  for  a  while  as
undersecretary of state. In 1769 Hume retired to  live  with
his  sister.  In  1775  he  was  stricken  by  an  incurable
intestinal cancer. Upon learning of his illness Hume  wrote,
"I  now  reckon upon a speedy dissolution." He coolly added,
".  .  . a man of sixty-five, by dying, cuts off only a  few
years  of  infirmities." Hume died in Edinburgh on Aug.  25,
1776.

    Hume's philosophical writings cast doubt on the truth of
church-supported   dogmas.  Charges  of   religious   heresy
permanently  barred him from appointment as a  professor  in
Scottish  universities. Not only did he  deny  miracles  and
other  religious dogmas, but his theory of knowledge  seemed
to  undercut the reality of the world itself. He  maintained
that  knowledge came from observation and experience. These,
however,  were purely individual. A person's perceptions  of
objects  were  just that perceptions. No underlying  reality
could ever be proved, because every individual's perceptions
are  his  alone even if they agree with someone else's.  The
"someone else" is also only a perception of the senses.

    In  his  political  writings Hume held  that  government
organization,  though  basically  evil,  is   necessary   to
guarantee  human happiness. In economic theory  Hume  argued
that  goods  rather than money are the basis of  wealth.  He
believed that each part of the world has special products or
services  to  offer and was an early advocate  of  increased
trade   among   the  nations  of  the  world.  Despite   the
intellectual  controversy he aroused, Hume was  admired  and
loved  by  his many friends, which included members  of  the
clergy. He never married but contented himself with assuring
the education of his brother's children.
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Excerpted from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia
Copyright c 1993, 1994 Compton's NewMedia, Inc.

