Hello and welcome to the blog, I’m your host the Pocket Theologian, and today we’re discussing the philosophical musings of David Hume. If your new to the blog, allow me to explain, I’m the pocket theologian and here on the blog we like to take a theological or philosophical topic and discuss it, anyways let’s get to it.
History
Born on May 7, 1711 in Edinborough, Scotland. David Hume was born into a mid-tier family. He didn’t need to hard core focus on a career, but he DID need to some kind of profession. Hume tried his hand at a lot of different careers, but found everything in his own words “laborious” and found himself drawn to the works of philosophy and “general learning”, again in his own words.
David Hume then went to University of Edinborough, at an unusually early age, around ten to twelve, while the usual age is around fourteen. Around the time he was eighteen, Hume describes having a huge epiphany that forever changed the direction of his life. And I would LOVE to tell you guys what that epiphany was, but unfortunately I cannot, since Hume never says what it is. Scholars believe that it could be a realization of his ideals on morality, but regardless this triggers a ten year period in Hume’s life, where he decides to just read and write. This period ended when Hume had a mental breakdown and a small case of scurvy.
Unfortunately, Hume would develop health issues at this point that would follow him for the rest of his life; including heart palpitations. But regardless, this didn’t stop him from attempting to attain a career in university, but his religious beliefs blocked him from that. So he tried to be a publish author, but his first work sold horribly… so he couldn’t do that. Instead, he pivoted and obtained a job as a librarian at the university of Edinborough; this gave him invaluable research materials which helped him in his philosophical endeavors. David Hume died on August 25,1776.
Notable Figures
Influenced by: Hume followed in the Empiricist tradition so naturally all the people who inspired him were in this vein. John Locke, one of the fathers of empiricism, Hume really liked Locke! George Berkeley- interpreted it for Hume to completely change it. He Influenced: Immanuel Kant; and Jeremy Bentham/Utilitarianism.
Key Characteristics
Empiricism: Hume belongs to the tradition, we’ve been discussing lately, about believing that reason was an actual way to understand and interpret information. But what sets him apart, is that he completely hated and refused to believe this idea; we’ll explain in more detail in a minute. But to put Hume up against Descartes, who we just talked about recently. Descartes believed that you must let go of every thought that isn’t rational, while Hume says that humans have no thoughts which are completely rational. Thus, Hume is more famous for his opposition to this idea of pure reason, rather than anything he added to it.
Feeling rather than rationality: Different from normal philosophy, since feelings are usually seen as bad, but Hume believed that you are naturally going to led by your feelings anyway. Regardless of how much you reason, you will make the same choice. Reason backs up your feelings, but does not inform them.
Identity: Hume believed there was no such thing as the “core of the person”. Hume believed that people, were not so easy to define as facts, logic, and reason wanted them to be. He instead believed that every time you look deep within yourself, you get a picture or a perception, which isn’t actually your core, it is just a picture you’re using to explain your core. Which to Hume didn’t properly explain the issue or properly explain who or what you are.
Misconceptions
That he was an atheist: He wasn’t… but only just barely. Hume said he believed in a God, but we can tell from his private letter and ideals that he very much didn’t agree with this idea, and only really said so because it was common for the time. Some of the sources I’ve consulted believed that he floated between agnosticism (there might be a god- I’m not sure) and what’s called theism (there is a god, but it makes no difference to me). He did however, HATE the idea of hell being used to scare people into believing in religion.
That he hated the public schooling system/university: This can be found if you give Hume’s works a brief gloss over, but upon closer inspection, you’ll see that Hume actually thought that public teaching was good. But, he thought that university professors who are already paid, and don’t need to actually change their thoughts into cohesive or easy to understand examples, don’t have the motivation to actually make their thoughts work. He thought that “public intellectuals” like himself were forced to actually have good philosophy because if they didn’t then they didn’t eat.
That Hume didn’t believe in ethics: This is a misconception that comes mostly from his writings on feelings versus reason. It is important to note though that Hume NEVER said that all feelings were acceptable. He believed that in order to have greater cohesion and unity in society that some feelings must be ignored, while others could be used to inform decisions.
That’s all I have for you today… Go in Peace!
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