Hume, David

Hume, David (1711–76). Philosopher and historian, the younger son of a strict presbyterian laird, Hume lost whatever Christian belief he had at Edinburgh University in the 1720s. His Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) provided a devastating critique of contemporary metaphysics, which cleared the ground for a genuinely empirical account of human understanding. He devoted the 1740s to clarifying the principles of his philosophy and applying them to contemporary political issues. His massive History of England (1754–63) is a neglected masterpiece, which remained a best seller for more than a century. His analysis of party is still one of the most acute investigations of that difficult subject. His account of the rise and fall of the feudal system is now attracting the attention it deserves. In general Hume wanted to reconstruct the political culture of his age and to recommend a ‘sceptical Whiggery’ to his contemporaries as the best antidote to party zealotry and the best ally of commerce. In spite of long absences in England and France and in spite of constant friction with the kirk, Hume remained a loyal and much-loved member of the Scottish literati, whose influence on its thought can be traced in its historical, literary, and scientific thinking as well as in its philosophy. He died in 1776, probably of cancer of the bowel.

Nicholas Phillipson