David Hume

[Reaper]

Is there anybody here familiar with the philosophy of David Hume? I've been particularly interested in reading some of his works lately, especially with regards to his treatise on skepticism. In particular, his Natural History of Religion seems to lay the fundamental logical and moral framework for both agnosticism and atheism...

 

Thanks!

[swansont]

Sorry. All I know about David Hume is that he could could out-consume Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

[imatfaal]

Not massively familiar with him - but the fact that Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, Charles Darwin, Jeremy Bentham, and later Karl Popper thought of him as a great and central influence shows the importance of his work. I used this resource far too much in the past - you might find it interesting http://www.iep.utm.edu/humereli/

[Skaffen]

Hume was a Reductionist - later expressed as a recognition in the field of Mathematics by Dirac as 'elegance'.

 

The backdrop for the Scottish Enlightenment was a shifting away from Religious doctrine, in part due to our history with the Vatican. (Vatican supported English dominance over Scotland and at one point threatened the whole nation with ex-communication!)

 

Scottish history is the ideal illustration of the negative effect Religious thought has on individuals and Society via it's removal.

Edited November 10, 2010 by Skaffen