David Hume

One of the leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, David Hume is regarded by many to be the greatest philosopher to write in the English language. An empiricist, who believed that all knowledge derives from experience, Hume’s work continues to be highly influential in Western philosophy today. Interestingly, although he lived to age 65, Hume’s most important and enduring philosophical work was done before he reached age 25.

But although it is as a philosopher that Hume earned historical fame, during his lifetime he was best known as an historian. His six-volume history of England, published between 1754 and 1762, was a best seller and remained the standard text for a century.

After Hume’s death in August 1776, his friend Adam Smith, the great Scottish economist and philosopher, wrote, “Upon the whole, I have always considered him, both in his lifetime and since his death, as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.” Because of those words, Smith found himself bitterly assailed.

During his life Hume was well-known for his religious skepticism, which made him a highly controversial figure in religiously conservative Scotland. Smith’s tribute to his friend enraged many of Hume’s critics and they lashed out at Smith in response, to his surprise. He would later write of the episode, “A single, and, as I thought, a very harmless sheet of paper, which I happened to write concerning the death of our late friend, Mr. Hume, brought upon me ten times more abuse than the very violent attack I had made upon the whole commercial system of Great Britain.”

David Hume was born in Edinburgh Scotland on May 7, 1711, three hundred twelve years ago today.

The 1766 portrait of Hume by the Scottish painter Allan Ramsay is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.