David Hume

1711–1776

Nationality: Scottish

Historical Period: The 18th Century

David Hume (1711-1776) was a moral philosopher and historian and a leading member of the Scottish Enlightenment. In philosophy he was a skeptic. In his multi-volume History of England he showed how the rule of law and the creation of an independent judiciary created the foundation for liberty in England. Hume also wrote on economics, was a personal friend of Adam Smith,and was a proponent of free trade. His works highlighted the neutrality of money and the errors of the mercantilists (whose flawed theories in favor of increased exports in order to build up a stock of gold remain the foundations of many public policies even today).

See the Liberty Matters online discussions on Smith, Hume, and Burke as Policy Liberals and Polity Conservatives and The Place of Liberty in David Hume’s Project

Quotes from David Hume:

• David Hume on property as a convention
• David Hume on one’s neighbors prosperity increases his own
• David Hume believes we should assume all men are self-interested knaves when it comes to politics
• David Hume argues that “love of liberty” often attracts the religious inquisitor to persecute them and thereby drive society into a state of “ignorance, corruption, and bondage”
• David Hume on the Perception of Beauty
• David Hume examines the pride of the turkey (and other creatures)
• David Hume on the origin of government in warfare, and the “perpetual struggle” between Liberty and Power
• David Hume ponders why the many can be governed so easily by the few and concludes that both force and opinion play a role
• David Hume argued that Individual Liberty emerged slowly out of the “violent system of government” which had earlier prevailed in Europe

Titles from David Hume:

• Author: Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals
• Author: Essays Moral, Political, Literary (LF ed.)
• Author: The History of England, 6 vols.
• Author: The History of England, vol. 1
• Author: The History of England, vol. 2
• Author: The History of England, vol. 3
• Author: The History of England, vol. 4
• Author: The History of England, vol. 5
• Author: The History of England, vol. 6
• Author: Letters of David Hume to William Strahan
• Author: The Natural History of Religion
• Author: Philosophical Works of David Hume
• Author: The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 1 (Treatise of Human Nature Part 1) (1828 ed.)
• Author: The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 2 (1828 ed.)
• Author: The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 3 (Essays Moral, Political, and Literary) (1828 ed.)
• Author: The Philosophical Works of David Hume, vol. 4 (1828 ed.)
• Author: A Treatise of Human Nature