Western1711–1776

David Hume

Edinburgh

Scottish empiricist and skeptic who reshaped theories of causation, mind, and morality.

Biography

David Hume was the most formidable skeptic the English language has produced, and the philosopher every argument for God must still pass. An Edinburgh Scot who wrote A Treatise of Human Nature in his twenties — it "fell dead-born from the press," he joked — he recast its ideas in the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding and became famous instead as an essayist and historian of England.

His empiricism is a solvent. All ideas derive from impressions; where no impression can be produced, the idea is suspect. Causation, examined honestly, shows only constant conjunction — one billiard ball moving after another — never a perceived necessary connection; our confidence that the future will resemble the past rests on custom, not reason. The self, sought introspectively, dissolves into a bundle of perceptions.

Religion received his most careful fire. Section X of the Enquiry, "Of Miracles," argues that no testimony can establish a miracle unless its falsehood would be more miraculous than the event it reports — and human credulity, love of wonder, and sectarian interest make that threshold effectively unreachable. The posthumous Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779), which he polished on his deathbed, remains the finest sustained examination of the design argument ever written: Philo presses that the world's order might arise from generation or vegetation as easily as from intelligence, that a finite, imperfect world licenses at most a finite, imperfect designer, and that the misery of sentient life sits badly with infinite benevolence — the problem of evil in its modern form.

He died with a serenity that scandalized the pious; Boswell visited expecting a deathbed conversion and found cheerful unbelief. Kant credited him with interrupting his dogmatic slumber. Every design argument since Paley, and every defense of miracles since, is an answer to Hume — which is its own kind of monument.

Works

A Coin of Edward VII: A Detective StoryDavid Hume

A Coin of Edward VII: A Detective Story

Detective and mystery stories; Fiction

David Hume

Biography

Works

A Coin of Edward VII: A Detective Story

A Creature of the Night: An Italian Enigma

A History of England from Early Times: A Linked Index to the Project Gutenberg Editions

A Son of Perdition: An Occult Romance

A Traitor in London

A Treatise of Human Nature

A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method Into Moral Subjects; and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

A Vision of the Future, Based on the Application of Ethical Principles

A Woman's Burden: A Novel

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals

Australian Fairy Tales

Behind the Veil in Persia and Turkish Arabia: An Account of an Englishwoman's Eight Years' Residence Amongst the Women of the East

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Essays

For the Defence

Hume: (English Men of Letters Series)

Hume's Political Discourses

In Queer Street

Index of the Project Gutenberg Works of Fergus Hume

Jonah's Luck

Judy of York Hill

Lady Jim of Curzon Street: A Novel

Life and Correspondence of David Hume, Volume 1

Life and Correspondence of David Hume, Volume 2

Madame Midas

Miss Mephistopheles: A Novel: (Sequel to Madame Midas.)

Monsieur Judas: A Paradox

Of the Orthographie and Congruitie of the Britan Tongue: A Treates, noe shorter than necessarie, for the Schooles

Philip II. of Spain

Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author

Philosophical Works, v. 2 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author

Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume I

Philosophumena; or, The refutation of all heresies, Volume II

Queens of old Spain

Red Money

Smithsonian Institution - United States National Museum - Bulletin 249: Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology; Papers 52-54 on Archeology

The Abolitionists: Together With Personal Memories Of The Struggle For Human Rights, 1830-1864

The Amethyst Cross

The Bishop's Secret

The Black Patch

The chronicles of Fairy land

The Clock Struck One

The Comic Almanack, Volume 1: An Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humerous Poetry, Quips, and Oddities

The Comic Almanack, Volume 2: An Ephemeris in Jest and Earnest, Containing Merry Tales, Humerous Poetry, Quips, and Oddities

The Court of Philip IV.: Spain in Decadence

The Courtships of Queen Elizabeth: A history of the various negotiations for her marriage

The Crimson Cryptogram: A Detective Story

The Disappearing Eye

The Empire Makers: A Romance of Adventure and War in South Africa

The Fever of Life

The Gates of Dawn

The Gentleman Who Vanished: A Psychological Phantasy

The Girl from Malta

The Great Lord Burghley: A study in Elizabethan statecraft

The Green Mummy

The Harlequin Opal: A Romance. Vol. 1 (of 3)

The Harlequin Opal: A Romance. Vol. 2 (of 3)

The Harlequin Opal: A Romance. Vol. 3 (of 3)

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part A.: From the Britons of Early Times to King John

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part B.: From Henry III. to Richard III.

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part C.: From Henry VII. to Mary

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part D.: From Elizabeth to James I.

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part E.: From Charles I. to Cromwell

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol. I., Part F.: From Charles II. to James II.

The History of England, Volume I: From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688

The Indian Bangle

The Island of Fantasy: A Romance

The Lady from Nowhere: A Detective Story

The Lion of Poland: The Story of Paderewski

The Lone Inn: A Mystery

The Lost Parchment: A Detective Story

The loyal mountaineers of Tennessee

The Man with a Secret: A Novel

The Mandarin's Fan

The Mandarin's Fan

The Mikado Jewel