1. Born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1711 and died in 1776

2. Lived in Scotland, England, France, and back in Scotland; never felt accepted and "comfortable" anyplace.

3. At his death remorseful that he had not liberated Scotland from "the Christian superstition"

4. Bibliography: Treatise on Human Understanding, 1738; could not find a publisher

An Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding, 1748 (revision of Treatise)

An Enquiry Concerning the Principle of Morals; 1751

Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, posthumously published

Bertrand Russell said of him--"To refute him has been ever since he wrote a favorite pastime among metaphysicians. For my past, I find none of their refutations convincing; nevertheless I cannot but hope that something less skeptical than Hume's system may be discoverable. . . . Hume's skeptical conclusions . . . are equally difficult to refute and to accept. The result was a challenge to philosophers which in my opinion has still not been adequately met."

1. He was an empiricist in epistemology and ethics

2. He felt philosophy is not intended to make people live better; it's truthful reasoning.

3. No attached to a University.

1. Agreed with Locke's rejection of "abstruse speculations" but rejected Locke's two kinds of ideas--of sensation and of reflection;

a. rather there are vivid and less lively impressions and the simple and complex

ideas about them

b. "psychological atomism"--for each idea, there is a distinct unit in the mind

2. Simple ideas--memory copies; complex ideas--combinations of simple ones

3. The Empirical Criterion of Meaning--a term has meaning only if there is an impression

or combination of impressions of which it is a copy

a. this is a rejection of Realism; there are no "substances" like the self, world, God

b. the notion of universals is only a 1) a term, 2) a number of particular, 3) a habit

4. "Hume's Fork"--"When we run over libraries persuaded of these [empirical] principles what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume of divinity or school metaphysics for instance let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it to the flames for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion" (Enquiry).

1. We cannot prove there is an external world, because of the limitations of our ideas

a. ideas are representation of the world and don't make contact with it

2. Also, our experiences are of particulars, not a single phenomenon called the world

3. We believe in the external world by our imagination, which enable us to postulate continuous existence of isolated phenomena

a. this means the world is not a logical postulate but a psychological one

4. Thus, we cannot say there is "causality" as a principle in the world; it's a habit

1. Since religion is based on universals, there is no rational evidence for belief

2. He criticized the "classical" arguments for God's existence:

a. the Ontological and Cosmological arguments--based on substance

b. the Design fails because:

1) cannot think of a not caused cause of the design of the world

2) a weak proof from analogy

3) aspects may have a design, but not the whole

4) even if there is a designer, it does not mean it's God

5) nature has an internal organism of order

6) in light of the extent of suffering, if God designed the world, then

God is like a terrible, sadistic infant

3. Yet, he claimed that one should not be a total skeptic, which he thought was a destructive as naive faith

a. religion has value in supporting morals--"To regulate the heart of men, humanize,

their conduct, and infuse the spirit of temperance, order, and obedience."

1. There is no rational proof for ethics; there is an empirical, psychological proof--the sentiment of benevolence, which issues in judgments of disinterested approbation when we believe that the conduct we are appraising is useful to humanity.

2. Reason is a slave to passions--"It would not be irrational to prefer the death of a thousand Orientals to the pricking of the little finger."

3. Cannot derive an "ought" from an "is."

4. The value of anything is in its utility or pleasure derived from the psychological sentiment of benevolence, which must meet two criteria:

a. be a pleasure resulting from a consideration of character or motive

b. be a disinterested approbation.

5. From where do our ethics come?

a. virtue--causes love and pride

b. vice--causes hatred or humility

c. the feeling of sympathy is needed for virtue because to be virtuous, one must

me communal and close to others;

d. greatness of mind--ability to sympathize: "Ideas of the affections of others are

1. His basic presupposition--evaluation is primarily in terms of satisfaction of consumers

2. Social identity is ascribed by our passions, which are derived from social interactions

3. What is Justice?

a. the idea of a just state of nature is a fiction; justice is not natural

b. justice comes from conventions determined by the balance of selfishness,

generosity, and the scant provisions of nature

c. the motive for justice is not nature or reason but the sentiment of sympathy

d. but we are typically too narrow-minded and shortsighted not to be selfish

4. A government is necessary for four reasons:

a. to ensure justice

b. to enforce promises

c. to give stability in the possession of property

d. the consensual transfer of property