David Hume Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

David Hume (1711–1776) was born on April 26, 1711, in Edinburgh, Scotland. After studying at the University of Edinburgh and briefly considering a career in law, he embarked on a lifelong career as a moral philosopher, historian, and essayist. He is widely considered the leading intellectual figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, and his writings had a profound influence on moral philosophy and the social sciences.

Hume is usually associated with the philosophical doctrine of empiricism, or the idea that all moral ideas can be traced back to sense impressions. This idea influenced Hume’s account of the origins of morality and justice. He is often described as a “common sense” philosopher because he believed that moral principles were best sought in everyday moral and political practices that had evolved over time—rather than in appeals to abstract principles, natural laws, or transcendent reason. Another of Hume’s most enduring philosophical claims is his criticism of the naturalistic fallacy, or the idea that evaluative claims about what “ought” to be can be deduced from purely factual observations of what “is.”

In addition to his major philosophical writings, which include A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–1740), An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751), Hume is renowned for his Essays: Moral, Political and Literary (1741–1742). Preferring the affluence and stability of modern commercial societies over the ignorance, poverty, and discord of the classical republics of antiquity, Hume argued for the civilizing role of commerce and criticized mercantilist prejudices holding that the wealth of some nations must come at the expense of others. Hume’s economic writings influenced his colleague Adam Smith and are widely credited for contributing to the development of the modern science of economics. Additionally, Hume’s essays included classic contributions like “Of Superstition and Enthusiasm,” in which he condemned Christianity’s sectarian tendency to mix into political affairs. His essays on political parties are credited with influencing the thought of James Madison, particularly Federalist No. 10 detailing the problems of factions. More generally, Hume’s essays idealized a commercial society and the progress in arts, sciences, manners, sociability, and conversation which he believed accompanied economic prosperity.

Hume was also renowned as the author of the magisterial History of England (1745–1762), published in six volumes and widely considered the definitive history of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the Glorious Revolution of 1688.

Hume is often characterized as a political conservative, but he resists this kind of easy categorization. He was a moderate who refused to side with either Whigs or Tories, maintaining there was something partially true about each of their claims. Hume was, however, deeply critical of wholesale attempts to reform long-standing customs in light of reason or ideal blueprints of society, and he counseled people to obey existing governments except in cases of extreme tyranny. Neither liberty nor authority is an absolute good in and of itself, Hume maintained, but the possibility of free government hinges on achieving a proper balance between these two principles.

Bibliography:

Hume, David. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding, and Concerning the Principles of Morals. Edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge. Oxford: Clarendon, 1975.
Essays: Moral, Political and Literary. Indianapolis: Liberty Press, 1985.
Livingston, Donald. Hume’s Philosophy of Common Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984.
Miller, David. Philosophy and Ideology in Hume’s Political Thought. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.
Phillipson, Nicholas. Hume. New York: St. Martin’s, 1989.

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