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David
Hume
Born: May 7, 1711 in Berwickshire, Scotland
Died: August 25, 1776 Edinburgh, Scotland |
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Famous For:
Hume was known to be very skeptical of religion. His thoughts
and writings influenced the development of both the school of
skepticism and the school of empiricism. As a philosopher, he
focused on ethics and political economy. |
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Humanist
Ideas:
One of Hume's philosophical positions was that
there was a difference between reason and sensation. He tried
to prove that "reason and rational judgments are merely
habitual associations of distinct sensations or
experiences." He also states that "reason can never
show us the connection of one object to another, tho' aided by
experience, and the observation of their conjunction in all past
instances. When the mind, therefore, passes from the idea or
impression of one object to the idea or belief of another, it is not
determined by reason, but by certain principles, which associate
together the ideas of these objects and unite them in the
imagination.
He also denied the existence of the individual
self, maintaining that because people do not have a constant
perception of themselves as distinct entities, they "are
nothing but a bundle or collection of different
perceptions." Hume offered one of the first purely
secular moral theories, which grounded morality in the pleasing and
useful consequences that result from our actions |
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Noted Sayings:
"Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous;
those in philosophy only ridiculous." (A
Treatise of Human Nature (1739) Bk I, pt iv, sec vii)
"Opposing one species of superstition to another, set them
a-quarreling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention,
happily make our escape in the calm, though obscure, regions of
philosophy." (The Natural History of Religion (1757))
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