07/05/2026
Today as on 7th May, 1711 is the birthday of the 18th century thinker David Hume who is considered one of the world’s great philosophical voices; well known in his own time as an historian and essayist. Best known for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism and naturalism he belongs to the schools of Scottish Enlightenment, Naturalism, Scepticism, Empiricism, Irreligion, Foundationalism, Newtonianism, Conceptualism, Indirect realism, Correspondence theory of truth, Moral sentimentalism and Conservatism.
Considered one of the Founding Father of Conservatism, a master stylist in any genre, his major philosophical works— ‘A Treatise of Human Nature’ (1739–1740), ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’ (1748) and ‘An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals’ (1751), as well as his posthumously published ‘Dialogues concerning Natural Religion’ (1779)—remain widely and deeply influential.
In throwing doubt on the assumption of a necessary link between cause and effect, Hume was the first philosopher of the postmedieval world to reformulate the skepticism of the ancients in a new and compelling way. An opponent of philosophical rationalists, Hume hit upon a key fact on human nature that we are more influenced by our feelings than by reason which governs human behaviour, famously proclaiming that "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions."
Thus he was sceptic if not altogether denying, the existence of practical reason as a principle because he claimed reason does not have any effect on morality, since morality is capable of producing effects in people that reason alone cannot create.
He conceived of philosophy as the inductive, experimental science of human nature. Taking the scientific method of the English physicist Sir Isaac Newton as his model and building on the epistemology of the English philosopher John Locke, Hume tried to describe how the mind works in acquiring what is called knowledge. He concluded that no theory of reality is possible; there can be no knowledge of anything beyond experience.
Despite the enduring impact of his theory of knowledge, Hume seems to have considered himself chiefly as a moralist and also a sentimentalist who held that Ethics are based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principle.
Although Hume’s more conservative contemporaries denounced his writings as works of scepticism and atheism, his influence is evident in the moral philosophy and economic writings of his close friend Adam Smith. Kant reported that Hume’s work woke him from his “dogmatic slumbers” and Jeremy Bentham remarked that reading Hume “caused the scales to fall” from his eyes. Charles Darwin regarded his work as a central influence on “The Theory of Evolution”. He was one of the influences that led Auguste Comte, the 19th-century French mathematician and sociologist, to develop “Positivism”.
He hoped that, "in some future age, an opportunity might be afforded of reducing the theory to practice…”
On the occasion of his birthday, Activism is paying sincere tribute to this great personality.
picture courtesy: Pinterest.com
