Philosophy › Reason, experience & Enlightenment › British empiricism
David Hume
1711–1776· Philosopher· Knowledge, logic & science
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
Scottish philosopher who pushed empiricism into skepticism about causation, induction and the self, and grounded morality in feeling.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: we never observe causes, only one event regularly following another; 'cause' is a habit of expectation. Reasoning: every idea comes from an impression, and there is no impression of a necessary connection. The self, too, is 'a bundle of perceptions'. Reason is 'the slave of the passions'; morals rest on sympathy, not logic. His Treatise (1739–40) 'fell dead-born from the press'; the Enquiries (1748, 1751) fared better. Main objection: his skepticism seems to undercut science itself.
Why it matters
Kant said Hume woke him from his 'dogmatic slumber'; his views on causation, the is–ought gap and miracles still frame debates in science and ethics.
Legacy and sources
His works and letters survive. He was passed over for professorships at Edinburgh (1745) and Glasgow (1751) as a suspected atheist, and was famous in his day for his History of England.
Still debated
Whether he was a thoroughgoing skeptic or a 'naturalist' who trusted human instinct, and whether he was an atheist, are debated.
Inside this (2)
Connections (9)
▸No-self (anatta) and impermanence anticipated the bundle view of the self in David HumeDebated
The connection
Some 2,200 years before Hume, Buddhist teaching held there is no permanent self (anatta), only changing physical and mental processes. Hume, looking inward, found only 'a bundle or collection of different perceptions' and no self behind them. The views are strikingly alike, though the Buddha drew a path to liberation from the insight and Hume did not.
When and how
The Buddha taught in northern India around the 5th century BC; Hume set out his bundle view in the Treatise of Human Nature, Book 1 (1739).
How sure are we?
The parallel is plain in the texts. Influence is unproven: Alison Gopnik showed in 2009 that Hume could have heard of Buddhism from a Jesuit, Charles François Dolu, at La Flèche.
Debates and open questions
Whether Hume knew anything of Buddhism while writing the Treatise in France (1734–37), or reached the same view independently, remains open.
▸Al-Ghazali, The Incoherence of the Philosophers anticipated the doubts about causation of David HumeMostly agreed
The connection
Al-Ghazali argued that we never see fire cause cotton to burn; we only see burning happen when fire touches it. The link is God's custom, not a necessity. Hume, six centuries later, also said we observe only regular sequence and that 'cause' is a habit, though he located the habit in our minds, not in God.
When and how
Al-Ghazali's Incoherence of the Philosophers, Baghdad, 1095, Discussion 17; Hume's Treatise (1739) and Enquiry (1748).
How sure are we?
The arguments are clearly parallel. Direct influence is undocumented, but Hume did read Nicolas Malebranche, who made a similar argument that God is the only true cause.
Debates and open questions
Some scholars suspect an indirect chain from al-Ghazali through Latin sources to Malebranche and Hume; no documentary link has been found.
▸George Berkeley: to be is to be perceived influenced David HumeWell documented
The connection
Berkeley argued that empiricism undermines belief in matter beyond perception; Hume applied the same test to other ideas, including the self, cause and God. He praised Berkeley's attack on abstract ideas and extended the skepticism, while dropping Berkeley's reliance on God to hold everything together.
When and how
Hume read Berkeley as a young man in Scotland; the Treatise of Human Nature was written in France and published in London in 1739–40.
How we know
The Treatise calls Berkeley's view of abstract ideas one of the 'greatest and most valuable discoveries'; the Enquiry says his arguments 'admit of no answer and produce no conviction'.
Debates and open questions
How closely Hume read Berkeley's other works is unclear; some scholars stress his debts to Malebranche, Bayle or Hutcheson instead.
▸David Hume posed Hume's problem of inductionWell documented
The connection
Applying his rule that ideas must trace back to experience, Hume asked what justifies expecting the future to resemble the past. Not logic, since the opposite is conceivable; not experience, which would be circular. He concluded we rely on custom or habit, a fact about human nature, not a proof.
When and how
Treatise of Human Nature, Book 1 (1739), restated more clearly in the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), Section 4.
How we know
Hume's texts state the argument plainly; the name 'problem of induction' came later, but philosophers from Kant to Popper credit him with it.
Debates and open questions
Whether Hume was a skeptic about induction or simply explaining how it works naturally is one of the main debates in Hume scholarship.
▸David Hume identified The is–ought gapWell documented
The connection
In one famous paragraph, Hume noticed that moral writers move from describing how things are to saying how they ought to be without explaining the step. Since reason only finds facts and relations, he argued, morality must come from feeling, sympathy and approval, not from facts alone.
When and how
Treatise of Human Nature, Book 3, Part 1, Section 1, published in London in 1740.
How we know
The paragraph is in the Treatise; reading it as a strict logical rule, 'Hume's law', became common only in the 20th century.
Debates and open questions
Alasdair MacIntyre argued in 1959 that Hume's own ethics bridges the gap by grounding 'ought' in facts about human feelings and needs; how Hume squared this with his paragraph is debated.
▸David Hume interrupted the "dogmatic slumber" of Immanuel KantWell documented
The connection
Hume argued we never see causes necessarily producing effects, only one event regularly following another; causation is a habit of mind. If so, science's laws rest on custom. Kant took the challenge seriously and answered that cause and effect is a category the mind brings to experience, so it holds necessarily for everything we can experience.
When and how
Königsberg, probably in the late 1760s or early 1770s; Kant read Hume in German translation and told the story in his Prolegomena (1783).
How we know
Kant wrote: 'the remembrance of David Hume was the very thing that many years ago first interrupted my dogmatic slumber.'
Debates and open questions
When the awakening happened, and which Hume texts Kant knew; he read little English, so he likely knew Hume's Treatise only through excerpts and summaries.
▸David Hume befriended and influenced Adam Smith, moral philosopher and economistWell documented
The connection
Hume, twelve years older, was Smith's closest friend from about 1750. His essays on money and trade (1752) attacked hoarding gold, and his theory of sympathy fed Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments. Hume praised The Wealth of Nations months before dying, and Smith's warm tribute to the famous unbeliever caused a scandal.
When and how
Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1750–1776, in Scottish Enlightenment clubs such as the Select Society; Hume died in August 1776.
How we know
Their surviving letters; Smith's 1776 letter, published with Hume's autobiography, calling him nearly 'a perfectly wise and virtuous man'; Smith's citations of Hume.
Debates and open questions
How much Smith's economics owes Hume versus the French Physiocrats, and how far Smith shared Hume's religious skepticism; he declined to publish Hume's Dialogues.
▸David Hume sought a "standard of taste" for What is beauty? The question of aestheticsWell documented
The connection
Hume accepted that beauty lies in the mind's response, not in objects, yet rejected 'anything goes'. Tastes converge over time: Homer still pleases after 2,000 years. The 'standard of taste' is the joint verdict of true judges with practice, delicacy, good sense and freedom from prejudice.
When and how
'Of the Standard of Taste', published in Four Dissertations, London, 1757.
How we know
The essay survives and remains a standard text in aesthetics courses; Kant's Critique of Judgment (1790) took up the same problem.
Debates and open questions
Critics ask how to identify true judges without already knowing what is beautiful, a circularity Hume never fully resolves.
▸David Hume challenged the design-argument answer to Does God exist?Well documented
The connection
In Hume's Dialogues, the skeptic Philo argues that the universe is not much like a machine, that with only one universe we have nothing to compare it to, and that a flawed world suggests a flawed or indifferent maker. Design reasoning cannot reach the all-good God of theology.
When and how
Edinburgh, written c. 1751–1776; Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, published in 1779, after his death.
How we know
The Dialogues survive; Hume delayed publication for fear of backlash, and Kant and later critics built on them.
Debates and open questions
Which character speaks for Hume, Philo or Cleanthes, is debated, as is whether he was an atheist or a skeptical deist.