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David Hume

1711–1776 · Enlightenment (Scottish)

The empiricist skeptic who unsettled reason, causation, and the self.

Primary Source

Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions
Original (English)

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”

A Treatise of Human Nature 2.3.3 (1739)

Biography

Student Synthesis

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Major Works

A Treatise of Human Nature
An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding

Key Concepts

The bundle theory of self
The problem of induction
Is–ought gap
Sentiment in ethics

Influence & Modern Scholarship

Secondary Scholarship

To be added: how this thinker was received, contested, and read today.

Connections

Thinkers in conversation with David Hume:

Thinker

Descartes