A short story about the British philosopher Hume

David Hume is regarded as one of the most important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment and the history of Western philosophy. The following are short stories about the British philosopher Hume that I have carefully collected for your reference and reference~

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Hume Modern scholars’ views on Hume The study of his works only focuses on his philosophical thoughts, but he first became famous as a historian. His book "History of England" became the basic work in the field of English history for 60 to 70 years. Historians generally classify Hume's philosophy as thoroughly skeptical, but some argue that naturalism was also one of Hume's central ideas. Scholars of Hume often divide him into those who emphasize the skeptical component (such as logical positivism) and those who emphasize the naturalistic component. Hume's philosophy was deeply influenced by the empiricists John Locke and George Berkeley, as well as some French writers. He also absorbed various English intellectuals such as Isaac Newton, Francis Hutcheson, The theories of Adam Smith and others.

Who is left?

Hume attended a dinner shortly before his death. A guest at the banquet complained that the world was full of hostility and that the antagonism between people was too deep. The old philosopher disagreed. ?No, not as you said. ?He said earnestly, ?You see, I have written before on all kinds of subjects that can arouse hostility, moral, political, economic, and religious, except Whigs, Tories, and Christians. Apart from that, I don’t have any enemies. ?

No need to add icing on the cake

The British idealist philosopher Hume was also an economist and historian. After he retired in his later years, he could still receive a pension of 1,000 pounds a year and printing fees. His History of Great Britain, which he wrote while working as a librarian at the Edinburgh Library, was a bestseller that was reprinted many times. People around him persuaded him to write a sequel and keep writing until the present day.

The philosopher spread his hands and said: You have given me too many honors, gentlemen, but I don’t want to write anymore. There are four reasons: I am too old, too fat, too Too lazy, too rich. ?

Hume’s views on religion

Hume’s early essay “On Superstition and Religion” has laid the foundation for almost all his subsequent works on the history of religion. In Hume's day, people who wanted to criticize religious beliefs still had to be cautious. For example, just 15 years before Hume was born, an 18-year-old college student Thomas Aikenhead simply criticized Christianity as "nonsense". He was prosecuted by the church and eventually convicted of blasphemy and hanged. Therefore, Hume only expressed his theories in a roundabout way, mostly using fictional characters in dialogues. Hume did not acknowledge himself as the author of A Treatise of Human Nature until the year of his death in 1776. His treatises "On Suicide" and "On the Immortality of the Soul", as well as his "Dialogues concerning Natural Religion", were published only after his death (in 1778 and 1779 respectively). Neither Hume nor the publisher is named in the work. The arrangements Hume made to hide his authorship have also led to great controversy among scholars today about whether Hume was a deist or an atheist. In any case, the rumors that Hume was an atheist did cause Hume to encounter obstacles and obstacles when applying for a job.

Hume once mentioned to a friend that he was accidentally converted to a Christian when he crossed a newly dried up lake in the center of Edinburgh on his way to supervise the construction site of his new home. He accidentally slipped into the mire and was trapped there, unable to climb out due to his obesity.

At this time some fish women happened to be passing by and saw Hume's predicament, but they quickly recognized him as the well-known atheist and refused to rescue him until Hume agreed to become a Christian and was forced to After reciting the Lord's Prayer and the Creed in the mire, the strong fish wives pulled him up. Hume later joked to his friends that these fish wives were the cleverest theologians he had ever encountered.

British philosopher Hume’s classic aphorisms

1. It is labor itself that constitutes the main factor in the happiness you pursue. Any enjoyment that is not obtained through hard work will soon be It will become boring and uninteresting.

2. Good times make our energy idle and useless, making us unable to feel our own strength, but obstacles awaken this strength and use it.

3. Morality can be considered as a means to achieve a certain end. The means to that end are valuable only if that end is valuable.

4. Reason conveys the knowledge of truth and falsehood, and taste produces the emotions of beauty and ugliness, good and evil.

5. Obviously, pride and humility are exactly opposites, but they have the same object. This object is the self.

6. Reason alone can never be the motive for any act of will.

7. The absence of the beloved makes lovers miss and lament all the time, making them feel great pain, but nothing is more conducive to deepening mutual affection than a short separation.

8. When I have the opportunity to admit my mistakes, I am most willing to seize it. I think that such a spirit of returning to truth and reason is more glorious than having the most correct judgment. ;