David Hume

Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian (1711-1776)

Fame81.6
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United Kingdom rank#72

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Fame81.6
Momentum13.9
United Kingdom rank#72
Academics rank#39
Wikipedia66.2K

Lived 1711–1776, aged 65United Kingdom

United Kingdom AcademicsAcademic

Wikipedia
110 languages
Cross-language footprint
Rank in United Kingdom
#72
Academics
Era
1711–1776
Aged 65

Summary

Updated 2026-08-27

He dismantled causality itself — not by denying that one thing follows another, but by showing we never actually see the link, only the habit of expecting it. That sceptical move, launched in 1739, still governs how we think about induction, science, and what we can really know.

Biography

About

Born in Edinburgh in 1711, Hume set out to build a science of human nature grounded entirely in experience, publishing A Treatise of Human Nature in 1739–40. He followed Locke in rejecting innate ideas, but pushed empiricism to a radical edge: inductive reasoning can't be justified by experience because it requires assuming the future will resemble the past — a presupposition experience can't supply. He argued that passion, not reason, drives human action, that we have no coherent idea of a unified self (only a "bundle of sensations"), and that moral judgments rest on sentiment rather than abs…

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In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from David Hume

David Hume

said1760

The admirers and followers of the Alcoran insist on the excellent moral precepts interspersed through that wild and absurd performance.

— David Hume, Of the Standard of Taste, 1760

David Hume

said9 Aug 1757

As to the Approbation or Esteem of those Blockheads who call themselves the Public, & whom a Bookseller, a Lord, a Priest, or a Party can guide, I do most heartily despise it.

— Letter 138, To Gilbert Elliot of Minto; August 9, 1757

David Hume

said1752

Here then we may learn the fallacy of the remark... that any particular state is weak, though fertile, populous, and well cultivated, merely because it wants money.

— Of Money (1752) as quoted in David Hume: Writings on Economics (1955, 1970) ed., Eugene Rotwein, p. 45.

David Hume

said9 Feb 1748