Early Modern · 1711–1776
Hume
“Can we really trust our senses and habits?”
David Hume pushed empiricism to its limits. He said all our knowledge comes from experience — but warned that a lot of what we assume isn't actually proven. We believe the sun will rise tomorrow and that one event ‘causes’ another, but really we've just gotten used to seeing them happen together. It's habit, not certainty.
“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”
The big idea
Hume argued we can never directly observe ‘cause and effect’ — we only see one thing follow another, and our mind forms a habit of expecting it. He also separated facts from values (you can't logically get an ‘ought’ from an ‘is’) and was deeply skeptical of anything beyond experience, including miracles.
What they changed
His sharp skepticism woke Immanuel Kant from what Kant called his ‘dogmatic slumber’ and reshaped all later philosophy. His insistence on evidence and his critique of cause-and-effect influenced modern science.
The controversy
If we can't even prove cause and effect, can we fully trust science at all? And his doubts about religion and miracles were so bold that he delayed publishing some works until after his death.
In their words
- “Beauty is no quality in things themselves; it exists merely in the mind which contemplates them.” — David Hume
- “Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.” — David Hume
✦ A curious detail
Hume was such a cheerful, friendly man that his friends nicknamed him ‘the Good David’ — even though his ideas shook philosophy to its core.
Read further
Portrait: Portrait of David Hume by Allan Ramsay. Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons.
Meet Hume on the voyage
A curated lecture, a short enquiry, and a wax-seal medallion to acquire — and the next thinker unlocks. No account, no password.
Begin the voyage