Hume

Modern philosophy

David Hume is one of the illustrious figures of modern empiricism.
His main work, A Treatise of Human Nature, exerted a profound influence on Kant and analytic philosophy. His critique of the notions of causality and the identity of the Self also makes him one of the most eminent representatives of modern scepticism.
Hume's vast thought embraces fields as diverse as epistemology, aesthetics, morality and politics.

Hume's works summarised on this site

book cover

A Treatise of Human Nature

Composed of three volumes, the Treatise is an emblematic masterpiece of English empiricism. Here is a close reading of it...

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Bibliography

Here are the essential books if you wish to better understand this author's thought:

Bailey, Alan & O'Brien, Dan (eds.) (2012). The Continuum Companion to Hume, New York: Continuum.
Campbell Mossner, Ernest (1980). The Life of David Hume, Oxford University Press
Garrett, Don (1996). Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Kemp Smith, Norman (1941). The Philosophy of David Hume. London: Macmillan.
Norton, David Fate & Taylor, Jacqueline (eds.) (2009). The Cambridge Companion to Hume, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Biography: life of Hume

Youth: towards the writing of the Treatise

David Hume was born in 1711 in Edinburgh, Scotland, to a family of minor nobility. He attended the city's college to study law, following in the footsteps of his lawyer father, who died a few years after his birth.

He read Latin poets, Greek philosophers, particularly the Stoics and Sceptics, and modern authors such as Descartes and Locke. He also discovered Newton's thought through contact with his teachers, disciples of the great British scientist.

At the age of 23, he underwent a spiritual crisis: he decided, in the grip of a lively exaltation, to reject the career to which his family had destined him, in order to devote himself entirely to philosophy and, more generally, to knowledge.

He left for France, where he lived for three years, first in Reims and then in the Sarthe region. During this period of intense intellectual activity, he wrote his fundamental work, A Treatise of Human Nature. This masterpiece of English empiricism, which was to exert a profound influence on Anglo-Saxon philosophy, appeared to general indifference.

Hume, deeply affected by this failure, decided to express himself only in shorter essays, more pleasant to read than the vast sum that was the Treatise, which he would later disown.

In 1739, Hume returned to Scotland. He began to form relationships with other Scottish scholars such as F. Hutcheson and A. Smith. In the interests of pedagogical clarity, he published an Abridgment of A Treatise of Human Nature, the third part of the work and an appendix.

Maturity: travel and other essays

At the age of 30, he met with success with the publication of his Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary, dealing with subjects as diverse as freedom of the press, the parties of Great Britain, and the original contract (rejected as fiction).

This budding success brought him enemies: he was attacked by certain thinkers, accusing him of scepticism and atheism, and his application for a professorship at Edinburgh University was rejected, despite his denials.

In 1746, he left Scotland for Austria and Italy: secretary to General Saint-Clair, he found free time to write a new work, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, in which he took up, recomposed, and developed certain ideas from the Treatise, but aroused little reaction. Yet a few decades later, Kant would say of this book that "it roused him from his dogmatic slumber."

At the age of forty, he returned to Edinburgh and published his Political Discourses. These met with some success (unlike An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, published a year later) and he began to have a certain reputation in scholarly circles in Britain.

He then embarked on a new project that would last nearly ten years, the writing of a monumental History of England, in 4 volumes, covering a chronology stretching from the Stuarts to the Tudors. This colossal work drew criticism from professional historians, and was another disappointment for Hume.

The last years: an overflowing activity

He considered retiring from public life, but was appointed to the French Embassy in Paris. This marked the beginning of an exhilarating period during which he met several French thinkers of the Lumières. In particular, Rousseau, with whom he eventually fell out due to the latter's shady temperament.

He returned to England, where he worked as an under-secretary of state for three years.

In 1769, he returned to Edinburgh, where he enjoyed a well-deserved retirement until his death in 1776. During his last years, he finished work on some books that would only appear posthumously, such as his famous Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion.

Main works

A Treatise of Human Nature
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion