David Hume

David Hume was a philosopher, historian, and writer from Scotland. He was born in 1711 in Edinburgh. A philosopher is a person who studies ideas about knowledge, thinking, and reality. Hume lived during the Enlightenment, a period when many thinkers in Europe wrote about reason and human understanding. He is known for careful writing about how people think and learn.

Hume studied at the University of Edinburgh. He began studying there at a young age. He did not complete a degree, but he continued reading and writing on his own. He believed that much of human knowledge comes from experience. Experience means what people see, hear, and feel in everyday life. For example, a person learns about fire by seeing its light and feeling its heat.

One of Hume’s main ideas was that human knowledge begins with impressions. An impression is a strong feeling or sensation, such as seeing a color or hearing a sound. Later, people remember these impressions as ideas. An idea is a weaker image of an impression in the mind. Hume explained that ideas come from impressions and not the other way around.

Hume also wrote about cause and effect. Cause and effect describes how one event seems to lead to another. For example, striking a match appears to cause fire. Hume argued that people do not see cause and effect directly. Instead, they see events happening together many times and expect the same result again. This habit of expectation shapes how people think.

In addition to philosophy, Hume wrote history. His main history work was called The History of England. This book described England’s past in clear language. It was widely read during his lifetime. Hume also worked as a librarian and later served as a government official. These jobs gave him time and access to many books.

David Hume spent his later years in Edinburgh. He continued writing and revising his works. He died in 1776. His ideas influenced later thinkers in philosophy and other fields. Hume is remembered for writing clearly about how people understand the world through experience and observation.