YM David (Hume David)

(1711-1776)
Born in Edinburgh on May 7, 1711. His father, Joseph Hume, was a lawyer, and belonged to an ancient house of Hume; Naynvels estate, adjacent to the village Chernsayd near Berwick-upon-Tweed, belonged to the family since the early 16. Mother Catherine Hume, . 'a woman of rare virtues' (all quotations in the biographical part of the article the, . If this is not mentioned, . on the work of Hume's autobiographical My Life - The Life of David Hume, . Esquire, . Written by Himself, . 1777), . was the daughter of Sir David Falconer, . heads the panel of judges,
. Although the family was more or less secure, as the youngest son David inherited a less than 50 pounds of annual revenue, despite this, he was determined to defend the independence, opting to improve their 'literary talent'.
After her husband's death Catherine 'devoted himself exclusively to education and education of children' - John, Catherine and David. Large place in the home education plays religion (Scottish Presbyterian), and David later recalled that he believed in God, when I was a kid. However naynvelsskie Yuma, as a family of educated people-oriented jurisprudence, were in the house of books on not only religion but also the secular sciences. The boys arrived at Edinburgh University in 1723. Several university professors were the followers of Newton and the members of a so-called. 'Rankenovskogo Club', where they discussed the principles of new science and philosophy, they also corresponded with Dzh.Berkli. In 1726 Hume at the insistence of the family, who considered him called to the profession, left the University. However, he secretly continued his education - 'I felt a deep aversion to any other occupation, in addition to studying philosophy and educational reading' - which laid the groundwork for its rapid development as a philosopher.

Excessive diligence resulted in Yuma in 1729 to a nervous breakdown. In 1734 he decided to 'try their luck at another, more practical career' - as a clerk in the office of a Bristol merchant. However, this did not work, and Hume went to France, he lived in 1734-1737 in Rheims and La Flц?che (where there was a Jesuit college, which received education and Mersenne Descartes). There he wrote A Treatise of Human Nature (A Treatise of Human Nature), the first two volumes of which were published in London in 1739, and a third in 1740. Work Hume remained virtually unnoticed - the world was not yet ready to accept the ideas of the 'Newton's moral philosophy'. Not aroused interest and his job description Short Treatise of Human Nature (An Abstract of a Book Lately Published: Entitled, . A Treatise of Human Nature, . etc., . Wherein the Chief Argument of That Book Is Farther Illustrated and Explained, . 1740),
. Disappointed, but not lost hope, Hume returned to Naynvels and issued encountered with a moderate interest in two of their experiments, moral and political (Essays, Moral and Political, 1741-1742). However, the reputation of the Treatise as heretical and even atheistic prevented his election a professor of ethics at Edinburgh University in 1744-1745. In 1745 (year of the failed mutiny), Hume served as a disciple halfwit Marquis Annandale. In 1746 with the rank of Secretary, he was accompanied by General James St. Clair (a distant relative), a farce in a similar raid on the coast of France, then in 1748-1749, as adjutant general - in a secret military mission of the courts of Vienna and Turin. Through these trips, he secured their independence, becoming the 'owner of about a thousand pounds'.

In 1748, Hume began to sign his name works. Shortly thereafter, his reputation began to grow rapidly. Hume reworks Treatise: Book I turn to the practice of philosophy of human cognition (Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding, . later research on human cognition - An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding) (1748), . which included an essay 'On miracles', book II - a study of the affections (Of the Passions), . included a little later in the Four studies (Four Dissertations, . 1757); Book III was converted to the study of the principles of morality (Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals, . 1751),
. Among other publications - Moral and political essays (Three Essays, Moral and Political, 1748); political discussions (Political Discourses, 1752) and History of England (History of England, in 6 vols., 1754-1762). In 1753, Hume began publishing experiments and essays (Essays and Treatises), collection of his works, not on historical issues, except for the Treatise, in 1762 the same fate befell the works on the history. His name was to attract attention. 'During the year there were two or three responses from the clergy, sometimes very high, and swearing Dr. Uorbertona showed me that my works are beginning to appreciate a good society'. The young Edward Gibbon called it "the great David Hume ', the young James Boswell -' the greatest writer of Britain '. Montesquieu was the first known European thinkers recognized his genius, after the death of the Abbe Leblanc, Montesquieu, Hume called 'the only one in Europe', who could replace the great Frenchman. Already in 1751 the literary glory Hume recognized in Edinburgh. In 1752 the Law Society has elected its custodian Bar Library (now the National Library of Scotland). There were new troubles - failure of election in the University of Glasgow and the attempt weaning from Church of Scotland

. Invitation in 1763 from the devout of Lord Hertford to the post of Acting Secretary of the Embassy in Paris was surprisingly flattering and pleasant - 'that, . who does not know the forces of fashion and the diversity of its manifestations, . can hardly imagine the reception, . extended to me in Paris, men and women of all ranks and conditions',
. What cost alone with the Countess de Bufler! In 1766, Hume brought to England chased Jean Jacques Rousseau, whom George III was prepared to provide shelter and livelihood. Paranoid, Rousseau soon invented a story about the 'conspiracy' Hume and the Parisian philosophes, who allegedly decided to defame him, and began sending letters to these charges across Europe. Forced to defend himself, Hume published a brief and true explanation of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau (A Concise and Genuine Account of the Dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau, 1766). The following year, Russo, covered by attack of madness, fled from England. In 1767, Lord Hertford's brother, General Conway has appointed Hume, assistant secretary of state for the northern territories - a post which Hume took less than one year.

'In 1768 I returned to Edinburgh very rich (I had an annual income of 1000 pounds), healthy, and although a few burdened for years, but those who wait a long time to enjoy the peace and be a witness to the spread of his fame'. This happy period of life Hume ended when he was diagnosed with the disease, consuming and painful force (diarrhea and colitis). Trip to London and Bath to diagnose and assign treatment did not get anywhere, and Hume returned to Edinburgh. He died at his home on St. David Street in New City on Aug. 25, 1776. One of his last wishes was the publication Dialogues on natural religion (Dialogues concerning Natural Religion, 1779). On his deathbed, he cited arguments against the immortality of the soul, than shocked Boswell, read and spoke approvingly of the Decline and Fall of Gibbon and the Wealth of Nations Adam Smith. In 1777 Smith published a biography of Hume, along with his letter to the publisher, . in which he wrote a close friend: 'In general, I always considered him, . while he was alive and after death, . man, . close to the ideal of wise and virtuous man - so, . extent possible to mortal human nature ',


. In the philosophical masterpiece, Treatise of Human Nature, . or attempt to use based on the experience of the method of reasoning to moral subjects (A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects) put forward the thesis that, . that 'almost all the sciences covered by the science of human nature and depend on it',
. His method of this science borrows from the new science of Newton, . who formulated it in Optics (1704): 'If natural philosophy through the use of the inductive method is destined to be improved, . it will be pushed back and the limits of moral philosophy ',
. As their predecessors in the study of human nature, Hume calls Locke, Shaftesbury, Mandeville, Hutcheson and Butler. If we exclude from consideration a priori science, dealing only with the relations of ideas (ie. logic and pure mathematics), we see that genuine knowledge, in other words, knowledge is absolutely and undeniably authentic, it is impossible. Therefore, on the facts we come not to certainty, but at best a probability, not to knowledge, but to faith. Faith - 'a new question, which still does not reflect the philosophers', is a living idea, or a correspondence associated with cash impression. Faith can not be the subject of evidence, it occurs when we perceive in the experience of the formation of causal.

According to Hume, between cause and effect there is no logical connection, causal relationship is found only in the experience. To experience all may be the cause of everything, but experience shows the three circumstances, consistently connecting with the cause of this result: contiguity in time and space and the primacy of time, the constancy of connection. Belief in a uniform order of nature, a causal process can not be proved, but because it becomes possible to very rational thinking. Thus, not reason, but habit becomes our guide in life: 'Mind - servant of the passions, and they should be, and he can not claim for any other position than to be in servitude and subjection to the passions'. Despite this deliberate antiratsionalisticheskoe overturning Platonic tradition, Hume recognizes the indispensable role of reason in generating test hypotheses, without which the scientific method can not. By systematically applying this method to the study of human nature, Hume proceeds to matters of religion, morality, aesthetics, history, political science, economics, literary criticism. Hume's approach is skeptical, since moves these matters from the scope of the absolute in the sphere of experience from the scope of knowledge in the sphere of faith. They receive a general measure in the form attesting to their evidence, and evidence themselves should be assessed in accordance with certain rules. And no authority can not avoid such verification procedures. However, Hume's skepticism does not mean proof that all the efforts of mankind are meaningless. Nature always prevails: 'I feel an absolute need and desire for life, to ensure that speak and act like all other people in the everyday affairs of life'.

Skepticism of Hume has both destructive and constructive features. In fact, he is creative. Brave new world of Hume closer to nature than to the supernatural realm, a world of empirical rather than rationalist. The existence of the Deity, as well as all other actual state of affairs can not be proved. Supranaturalizm ( 'religious hypothesis') should be investigated empirically, in terms of which the universe or device Rights. A miracle, or a 'violation of the laws of nature', although possible in theory, never in history has been witnessed so convincingly that you can put it in the framework of religious. Miraculous phenomena are always associated with human evidence, but people are known to be more prone to credulity and superstition than to skepticism and impartiality (section 'miracles' Research). Output to the basis of analogy the natural and moral attributes of God are clear enough that they can be used in religious practice. 'From the religious hypothesis is impossible to extract any new fact, . no foresight or prediction, . no one expected reward or causing fear of punishment, . which would not have been known to us in practice, and through observation '(section' About the providence and future life 'studies, Dialogues on Natural Religion),
. Because of the fundamental irrationality of human nature religion is not born out of philosophy and of human hope and human fear. Polytheism preceded monotheism and still alive in the popular consciousness (Natural History of Religion). Having deprived her of metaphysical religion, and even a reasonable basis, Hume - whatever his motives - was the ancestor of the modern 'philosophy of religion'.

Because man is more sentient than a reasoning creature, its value judgments are irrational nature. In ethics, Hume recognizes the primacy of self-love, but it highlights the natural origins of feelings of sympathy for others. This sympathy (or benevolence) for morality - the same as that belief for knowledge. Although the distinction between good and evil is set by emotions, the mind in his role as servants of the passions and instincts needed to determine the measure of social utility - a source of legal sanctions. Natural law in the sense of a mandatory code of ethics, . existing outside of experience, . can not claim to scientific truth; similar notions of the natural state, . original contract and the social contract are fiction, . sometimes useful, . but often bearing the purely 'poetic' nature,
. Aesthetics of Hume, though not found systematic expression, has influenced subsequent thinkers. The classical (and neoclassical) rationalist universalism is replaced him on the taste or emotion, within the internal structure of the soul. A tendency toward romantic individualism (or pluralism), but Hume does not reach the idea of personal autonomy (the essay 'On the norm of taste').

Hume has always been a writer who dreams of the most widely known. 'I always thought that publishing a treatise on human nature, that success depends on the style, not the content'. His History of England was the first truly national history and remained a model of historical research during the next century. Describing not only political but also cultural processes, with Voltaire, Hume shared the honor of being 'the father of the new historiography'. In the essay 'On the national ethos', he explains the national differences moral (or institutional), rather than physical causes. In the essay 'On the multiplicity of ancient peoples' shows that the population in the world today than in ancient. In the field of political theory, creative skepticism of Hume left no stone unturned in the central dogma as a Whig ( 'On the original contract'), . and the Tory party ( 'On the passive obedience'), . a way of governing evaluated solely in terms of value added,
. In economic science, Hume was considered the most competent and influential English thinker until the appearance of works of Adam Smith. He discussed the ideas of the Physiocrats even before the school itself, its concepts have anticipated the ideas of David Ricardo. Hume first systematically developed the theory of labor, money, profit, taxation, international trade and trade balance.

Excellent writing Hume. Cold, insightful reasoning philosopher alternates in their heart, good-natured friendly chatter, everywhere we find abundant manifestation of irony and humor. In literary-critical works of Hume remained on the traditional classical positions and wished prosperity of the national Scottish literature. However, he had compiled a list of jargon, which should have been excluded from the Scottish speech was a step towards a more simple and plain style of English prose language on the model la clart francaise. But then Hume was accused of what he wrote too simple and clear, and therefore can not be regarded as a serious philosopher.

For David Hume's philosophy was a matter of life. You can verify this by comparing the two sections of the Treatise ( 'the love of good fame' and 'On the curiosity, or love of truth') with a curriculum vitae, or any complete biography of the thinker.