David Hume
David Hume is most commonly known as one of the most important philosophers to ever write in the English language. His development of extreme skepticism in philosophy, and rejection of traditional metaphysics, has been integral to the development of modern philosophical thinking. Although philosophers of the past three hundred years may owe a great debt to him, and his main legacy today is as a philosopher, Hume, in his lifetime, gained the most acclaim as a historian. His work The History of Great Britain, published from 1754 to 1762, is a six-volume analysis of British history form the time of the Roman occupation until the first of the Stuart monarchs. "The first Quality of a historian is to be true and impartial; the next is to be interesting," said Hume. Hume wanted to produce an unbiased history that was interesting for a common citizen to read. Hume's main focus in this voluminous work is to convey an understanding of the British constitution and its history, without factional, or partisan, biases. Hume views his history as free from the traditional prejudices litter British histories, and is also quick to point out his superiority to these historians. Although the liberal Hume labeled himself as "a Whig, but a
He believed morality was simply a factor in one's pursuit of personal happiness. From 1767 to 1768 Hume served as under-secretary of state in London. This six-volume account was published between 1754 and 1762. Although human promoted this radical philosophy he did acknowledge that human beings needed to think in terms of cause and effect or they would go mad. It was also a response to the inadequacies he saw in previous British histories, most notably the history of Frenchman Paul de Rapin-Thoyras. (Discuss Chucks- debate w/ parliament) . In 1765 Hume returned to England with Rousseau but the two fell out of favor with each other and produced very public criticisms of one another. Instead in 1744 he became the personal tutor to the marquis of Annandale and in 1746 judge advocate for a British military expedition to France. Hume began his stint at the University of Edinburgh in 1723, at the age of 12. The Treatise continues and addresses ethics. This was basically a condensed and more concise version of his Treatise. Although the position did not pay well, it was very prestigious, and gave Hume access to over 30,000 books. Hume denies the reasonableness of right and wrong.
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