“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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Philosopher
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David Hume
1711–1776 · Empiricism · Enlightenment
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David Hume, born in Edinburgh in 1711, died in 1776, pressed empiricism further than Locke and paid for it in reputation. A Treatise of Human Nature, published in 1739 and 1740, fell, as he later said, dead-born from the press. The Enquiries rewrite parts of it for a public that had not listened. Reason, he argues, does not pick ends.
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Custom carries factual life, because the future's resemblance to the past is not a proof. A wise person proportions belief to the evidence. The self one can catch is a perception, not a bare owner. Moral writing slides from is to ought without showing the step. The Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, held back until after his death, leave natural theology a riddle.
The conclusion of Treatise book one records a real melancholy and then dinner, company, and backgammon. He also wrote a great History of England. The English is his. He is not a man who believed nothing. He is a man who tried to say what belief is when reason cannot found it.
Start here
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, sections 4, 5, and 12
The fork, custom, and the flames are the public spine. The Treatise is richer and harder, and it can follow.
Quotations
“Custom, then, is the great guide of human life.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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“A wise person proportions their belief to the evidence.”
David Hume · Empiricism
knowledgemind
Paraphrase or translation
“I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception.”
David Hume · Empiricism
selfmindknowledge
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“All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas, and Matters of Fact.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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“If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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Well attested
“I am surprised to find, that instead of the usual copulations of propositions, is, and is not, I meet with no proposition that is not connected with an ought, or an ought not.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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“The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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“I am confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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“All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of Cause and Effect.”
David Hume · Empiricism
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Well attested
Key ideas
The fork
Claims are relations of ideas or matters of fact, and factual reasoning runs on cause and effect rather than on demonstration.
Custom
Habit, not a proof, is the great guide that makes the future expected to resemble the past.
Reason and passion
Reason serves the passions and cannot mint a motive from nothing, though a calm passion can govern a violent one.
The bundle
Introspection finds perceptions, not a simple self that owns them, and ordinary life feigns identity anyway.
Major works
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–1740)
The full system. Book 1 ends in melancholy. Book 3 contains the is-ought paragraph.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)
The cleaner public statement. Sections 4, 5, 10, and 12 are the usual doors.
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)
Published after his death. Part 12 is the riddle, and the speakers do not settle.
Influences
- John Locke
- Cicero
- Berkeley
- Newton
Influenced
Common misreadings
- Reason is the slave of the passions means one should obey every impulse.
- Commit it to the flames is an order to burn novels and history, rather than a test for pretended knowledge.
Famous lines David Hume never said
None of the lines this library files for David Hume is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
FAQ
What is the best book to start with?
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, sections 4, 5, and 12 The fork, custom, and the flames are the public spine. The Treatise is richer and harder, and it can follow.
What is the most famous quote?
This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for David Hume that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.” (A Treatise of Human Nature II.3.3, Well attested).
What is the most misquoted line?
None of the lines this library files for David Hume is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.
What is one key idea, in a sentence?
The fork: Claims are relations of ideas or matters of fact, and factual reasoning runs on cause and effect rather than on demonstration.