Tao Te Ching
David Hume
1711 – 1776 CE
"One of the most important philosophers"
Hume's father died when he was two and his mother encouraged his education which developed him into a true polymath in philosophy, mathematics, science, economics, history and literature. His writing career began when he was only 16 but—popular with the ladies and aristocratic society—he kept most of his controversial, influential writings secret and they weren't printed until after his death. Mainly recognized as an historian during his life, his post-mortemly published philosophical works became a major influence on thought leaders like Francis Bacon, Descartes, Newton, Locke, Berkeley, Adam Smith and all who came after them. Kant said that Hume woke him up from his "dogmatic slumbers."
Lineages
British Historians / Journalists
Eras
Chinese
Qing dynasty (1644 – 1912 CE)Unlisted Sources
A Treatise of Human Nature (1740)
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
Of Polygamy and Divorces
Self-obituary funeral oration
Quotes by David Hume (15 quotes)
“I was a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social and cheerful humor, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions.”
from Self-obituary funeral oration
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“The role of reason is not to make us wise but to reveal our ignorance... 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.”
from A Treatise of Human Nature (1740)
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“The role of reason is not to make us wise but to reveal our ignorance.”
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“Nothing appears more surprising to those who consider human affairs with a philosophical eye than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few, and the implicit submission with which men resign their own sentiments and passions to those of their rulers.”
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“Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.”
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“As force is always on the side of the governed, the governors have nothing to support them but opinion. It is therefore, on opinion only that government is founded, and this maxim extends to the most despotic and most military governments, as well as to the most free and most popular.”
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“The liberty of divorce is not only a cure for hatred and domestic quarrels; it is also an admirable preservative against them, and the secret for keeping alive that love which first united the married couple.”
from Of Polygamy and Divorces
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“The same motives always produce the same actions; the same events follow from the same causes”
from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
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“The Christian religion not only was at first attended with miracles, but even at this day cannot be believed by any reasonable person without one.”
from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
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“It is harder to avoid censure than to gain applause—which may be gained by one great or wise action. But to escape censure, a man must pass his whole life without saying or doing one ill or foolish thing.”
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“Nothing indeed can be a stronger presumption of falsehood than the approbation of the multitude.”
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“It is belied by all history and experience that the people are the origins of all just power.”
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“The corruption of the best things gives rise to the worst.”
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“Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow... I know I should be disappointed, and that I should in vain depend upon your gratitude. Here then I leave you to labour alone; You treat me in the same manner. The seasons change; and both of us lose our harvests for want of mutual confidence and security.”
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Quotes about David Hume (7 quotes)
“Hume's and Schlick's ontological thesis that there cannot exist anything intermediate between chance and determinism seems to me not only highly dogmatic (not to say doctrinaire) but clearly absurd; and it is understandable only on the assumption that they believed in a complete determinism in which chance has no status except as a symptom of our ignorance.”
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“There is more to be learned from each page of David Hume than from the collected philosophical works of Hegel, Herbart and Schleiermacher taken together.”
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“Upon the whole, I have always considered him [David Hume], 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.”
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“I freely admit that the remembrance of David Hume was the very thing that many years ago first interrupted my dogmatic slumber and gave a completely different direction to my researches in the field of speculative philosophy.”
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“I was a man of mild dispositions, of command of temper, of an open, social and cheerful humor, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions.”
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“Hume's philosophy represents the bankruptcy of 18th century reasonableness... It was inevitable that such a self-refutation of rationality should be followed by a great outburst of irrational faith. Rousseau was mad but influential; Hume was sane but had no followers.”
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“Hume is one of the most important among philosophers, because he developed to its logical conclusion the empirical philosophy of Locke and Berkeley, and by making it self-consistent made it incredible. He represents, in a certain sense, a dead end: in his direction, it is impossible to go further”
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