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Philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, essayist and writer, the Scotsman David Hume (1711-1776) made important contributions to moral philosophy along with other Scottish authors such as Francis Hutcheson, Adam Smith and Thomas Reiol.
He studied Law at the University of Edinburgh due to family imposition and, in France, at the College of La Flèche, where he wrote his Treatise on Human Nature. His true vocation was philosophy. He wrote:
“I followed the normal educational route successfully, and at a very young age I fell prey to a great passion for literature that has become the dominant trend in my life and the main source of my satisfaction.”
As an empiricist philosopher, Hume maintains that all knowledge ultimately comes from experience; either from external experience, that is, that which comes from the senses, such as sight, hearing, etc., or from intimate experience, self-experience. His empiricism guided him towards an openly enlightened position and he was one of the greatest representatives of English empiricism.
Empiricism is “a system or procedure founded only on experience,” but empiricism is also a philosophical system that takes experience as the sole basis of human knowledge.”
Hume was influenced by Locke and Berkeley. And he influenced Dr. John Gregory, who published A Discourse Concerning the Duties and Qualities of a Physician in 1772.
Gregory takes Hume’s standards:
Immanuel Kant, for example, credited Hume with having provided a stimulus to his philosophical thinking that would have awakened him from his “dogmatic sleep” of reason.
He maintained a friendship with Rousseau and offered him hospitality in England when he was expelled from France.
The science of man must be based on experience and observation and not on speculation or mere deductions.
Man is a rational being, so one investigation will be a study related to understanding, but he is also a being of action, a practical being, so another study must refer to morality.
About religion he thinks like this:
“The proper function of religion is to regulate the hearts of men, humanize their behavior, instill the spirit of temperance, order and obedience.”
About virtue he states:
“It is a quality of the mind that is pleasing or deserves approval from everyone who considers or contemplates it.”
