David Hume
Born: 01-01-1711
David Hume was an 18th-century Scottish philosopher, historian, and essayist, renowned for his contributions to the development of empiricism and skepticism. His influential works, including "A Treatise of Human Nature," explore human psychology, knowledge, and the limits of reason. Hume's philosophical inquiries laid the groundwork for modern cognitive science and inspired future generations of thinkers, such as Immanuel Kant. His writings continue to be pivotal in the study of philosophy.
Book summaries for books written by David Hume
Quotes
Custom, then, is the great guide of human life.
In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence.
Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
Belief is more properly an act of the sensitive, than of the cogitative part of our natures.
All events seem entirely loose and separate. One event follows another; but we never can observe any tie between them.
The rules of morality are not the conclusions of our reason.
It is impossible, therefore, that any arguments from experience can prove this resemblance of the past to the future.
All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of cause and effect.
The chief obstacle to our improvement is the difficulty of producing an entire and perfect uniformity among human sentiments.
Every judgment of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things divine or human, is nothing but a determination of the mind.
Nothing is more free than the imagination of man.
The heart of man is made to reconcile the most glaring contradictions.