David Hume
David Hume turned philosophy into a trial of its own habits: when we ask what justifies causation, the self, or morality, his answer is that reason itself has less empire than it likes to think.
Quick Facts
- Period
- 1711 – 1776
- Region
- Europe
- Key Figures
- Adam Smith, David Hume, George Berkeley +3 more
Key Figures
Adam Smith
Successor
Scottish EnlightenmentSmith matters in the Hume story because he took several of Hume’s psychological and social insights and gave them a more...
David Hume
Originator
Scottish EnlightenmentDavid Hume was not a commentator on al-Ghazali in any direct historical sense, and he did not shape al-Ghazali’s thought...
George Berkeley
Interlocutor
Irish Enlightenment / Anglican philosophyGeorge Berkeley is often remembered as a philosophical oddity, the bishop who denied material substance and insisted tha...
Immanuel Kant
Critic
German Enlightenment / Critical PhilosophyImmanuel Kant gives beauty one of its most influential modern formulations in the *Critique of Judgment*, but the force ...
John Locke
Predecessor
British EmpiricismJohn Locke’s theory of consciousness was not born in a vacuum of abstract reflection; it emerged from a life shaped by i...
William Edward Hartpole Lecky
Interpreter
Victorian intellectual historyWilliam Edward Hartpole Lecky was born into the Protestant Anglo-Irish world of nineteenth-century Dublin, and that inhe...
The Story
This narrative combines documented history with dramatized scenes for storytelling purposes.
The World That Made It
David Hume was born into a Scotland that had recently been remade by two revolutions at once: a political settlement and an intellectual one. The Union of 1707 ...
The Central Idea
Hume’s central insight is often summarized as skepticism, but that is too blunt an instrument for what he actually did. He was not mainly saying that nothing ca...
The System
Once Hume has shifted the ground from metaphysical necessity to human nature, the rest of his philosophy begins to lock into place. The system is not a system i...
Tensions & Critiques
Hume’s brilliance lay partly in making philosophy look frank about its own limits. He did not present skepticism as a dramatic pose, nor as a final refusal of t...
Legacy & Echoes
Hume’s afterlife in philosophy began almost at once, but it did not remain within philosophy. He became one of those rare thinkers whose questions escape the li...
Timeline
Birth of David Hume
**1711-04-26** — David Hume was born in Edinburgh into a Scotland shaped by the Union and by the tightening contest between theology, law, and the new science. The city would remain central to his identity even as his thinking became cosmopolitan.
Retreat to La Flèche and the formation of the Treatise project
**1734** — After early commercial and educational disappointments, Hume withdrew to study in France and began shaping the philosophical project that would become the *Treatise of Human Nature*. The move is important because it marked his turn from ambition in ordinary careers to ambition in philosophy.
Publication of Book 1 of the Treatise
**1739** — The first book of *A Treatise of Human Nature* appeared, presenting Hume’s radical account of perception, ideas, and the foundations of human knowledge. Its arguments on causation and induction would become some of the most discussed in modern philosophy.
Publication of Books 2 and 3 of the Treatise
**1740** — The remaining books of the *Treatise* developed Hume’s psychology of the passions and his moral theory. Though initially neglected, the work contained the core of his mature philosophy.
Publication of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
**1748** — Hume revised and sharpened his earlier arguments in a more accessible form. The essay on miracles and the problem of induction made the work a lasting classic and an enduring challenge to natural theology.
Publication of An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
**1751** — Hume recast his moral philosophy around sentiment, utility, and social convention. Many later readers have regarded this as his most polished ethical work.
Publication of The Natural History of Religion
**1757** — Hume offered a psychological and historical account of religious belief, treating it as a human phenomenon shaped by fear, hope, and social life. The work intensified objections from religious critics while expanding the reach of his naturalism.
Publication of the Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
**1759** — Hume explored the argument from design through a dramatic dialogue that avoided direct doctrinal confrontation while pressing deep doubts about natural theology. The work would be published posthumously, making its circulation part of Hume’s reputation for dangerous subtlety.
Kant reads Hume and the critical turn begins
**1769** — Kant later described Hume as the philosopher who awakened him from dogmatic slumber. Whether or not the anecdote is taken literally, Hume’s challenge to causation became a catalyst for the critical philosophy.
Death of David Hume
**1776-08-25** — Hume died in Edinburgh after a public life that included historical writing, diplomacy, and continued philosophical controversy. His calm reputation in death only sharpened the contrast with the radical force of his ideas.
Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason appears
**1781** — Kant’s response to the Humean problem of necessity gave the challenge a new philosophical architecture. The work ensured that Hume’s skepticism would remain a central reference point for modern epistemology.
Modern scholarly revival of Hume’s Treatise
**1939** — Twentieth-century scholarship and analytic philosophy revived the *Treatise* as a major philosophical text rather than a prelude to later empiricism. Hume became central again in debates over induction, causation, personal identity, and the is/ought gap.
Sources
- primary_textHume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. Edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge, revised by P. H. Nidditch. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.
Standard scholarly edition of Hume's most ambitious work.
- primary_textHume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Core text for causation, induction, and miracles.
- primary_textHume, David. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Edited by Tom L. Beauchamp. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Key statement of Hume's sentimentalist ethics.
- primary_textHume, David. Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Edited by Richard H. Popkin. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1998.
Essential for Hume's critique of natural theology.
- reference_articleStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: 'David Hume'
Reliable overview of Hume's life and philosophy.
- reference_articleStanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: 'Hume's Moral Philosophy'
Detailed discussion of Hume's ethics and the is/ought issue.
- reference_articleInternet Encyclopedia of Philosophy: 'David Hume'
Accessible and reliable secondary overview.
- secondary_sourceMorris, William Edward. David Hume. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy-style scholarly monograph and articles on Hume's philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007.
A major scholarly study of Hume's thought.
- secondary_sourceBaier, Annette C. A Progress of Sentiments: Reflections on Hume's Treatise. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991.
Influential interpretation of Hume's moral psychology.
- secondary_sourceGarrett, Don. Cognition and Commitment in Hume's Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Important study of Hume's epistemology and system.
Explore Related Archives
The philosophies documented here connect to the broader record. Explore the context through our sister archives.
