the 18th century writer David Hume is
one of the world’s great philosophical
voices because he hit upon a key fact
about human nature that we are more
influenced by our feelings than by
reason this is at one level possibly a
great insult to our self-image but Hume
for that if we could learn to deal well
with his surprising fact we could be
both individually and collectively a
great deal karma and happier than if we
denied it Hume was born in Edinburgh in
1711 to a family that was long
established but far from rich he was the
second son and it was clear early on
that he would need to find a job
eventually but nothing seemed to suit
him he tried law the vocation of his
father and older brother but soon
decided that it was a laborious
profession requiring the drudgery of a
whole life he was considered for
academic posts at the University of
Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow
but he didn’t land either job so he set
out to become a public intellectual
someone who would make his money selling
books to the general public it was
pretty hard going his first book a
treatise of human nature for which he
had the highest hopes met with a dismal
reception never literary attempt was
more unfortunate than my treatise he
wrote it fell dead born from the press
without reaching such distinction as
even to excite a murmur among the
zealots but Hume kept at it realizing
that the blame largely lay with the way
he had expressed his ideas and doggedly
training himself to write in a more
accessible and popular manner eventually
he did find an audience his later works
popular history books and collections of
elegant essays were bestsellers of the
day as he would say not without some
pride the money given me by booksellers
much exceeded anything formerly known in
England I was to become not only
independent but opulent Humes philosophy
is built around a single powerful
observation that the key thing we need
to get right in life is feeling rather
than rationality it sounds like an odd
conclusion
you assume that what we need to do is
train our minds to be as rational as
possible to be devoted to evidence and
logical reasoning and committed to
preventing our feelings from getting in
the way but human sister that whatever
we may aim for reason is the slave of
passion we are more motivated by our
feelings than by any of the
comparatively feeble results of analysis
and logic few of our leading convictions
are driven by rational investigations of
the facts we decide whether someone is
admirable what to do with our spare time
what constitutes a successful career or
who to love on the basis of feeling
about anything else reason helps a
little but the decisive factors are
bound up with our emotional lives with
our passions as humans them Hume lived
in a time known as the age of Reason
when many claim that the glory of human
beings consists in their rationality but
for Hume a human is just another kind of
animal Hume was deeply attentive to the
curious way that we very often reasoned
from rather than to our convictions we
find an idea nice or threatening and on
that basis alone declare it true or
false reason only comes in later to
support the original attitude what Hume
didn’t believe however was that all
feelings are acceptable and equal that’s
why he firmly believed in the education
of the passions people have to learn to
be more benevolent more patient more at
ease with themselves and less afraid of
others but to be taught these things
they need an education system that
addresses feelings rather than reason
this is why Hume so deeply believed in
the role and significance of public
intellectuals these were people who
unlike university professors that Hume
grew to dislike immensely had to excite
a passion based attachment to ideas
wisdom and insight only if they
succeeded would they have the money to
eat it was for this reason that they had
to write well use colorful examples and
have recourse to wit and charm
Humes insight is that if you want to
change people’s beliefs reasoning with
them like a normal philosophy professor
won’t be the most effective strategy
he’s pointing out that we have to try to
adjust sentiments by sympathy
reassurance good example encouragement
and what he called our
and only later for a few determined
Souls should we ever try to make a case
on the basis of facts and logic a key
place where humaid use of the idea of
the priority of feeling over reason was
in connection with religion Hume didn’t
think it was rational to believe in God
that is he didn’t think they were
compelling logical arguments in favor of
the existence of a deity he himself
seems to have floated between mild
agnosticism there might be a God I’m
just not sure and mild Fae ISM there is
a God but it doesn’t make much
difference to me that there is however
the idea of a vindictive God someone
ready to punish people in an afterlife
and not believing in him in this one
this he considered a cruel superstition
Hume central point is that religious
belief isn’t the product of reason so
arguing for or against it on the basis
of facts doesn’t touch the core issue to
try to persuade someone to believe or
not believe with well honed arguments
seemed particularly daf-2 Hume this is
why he was a foremost offender of the
concept of religious toleration we
shouldn’t treat those who disagree with
us over religion as rational people
who’ve made an error of reasoning and so
need to be put right but rather as
passionate emotion driven creatures who
should be left in peace so long as they
do likewise with us trying to have a
rational argument over religion was for
Hume the height of folly and arrogance
Hume was what is technically known as a
skeptic someone committed to doubting a
lot of the common-sense ideas of the day
one of the things he doubted was the
concept of what is technically called
personal identity the idea that we have
that we can understand ourselves and
have a more or less graspable an
enduring identity that runs through life
hyouta doubt that there is no such thing
as a core self when I enter most
intimately into what I call myself he
famously explained I always stumble on
some particular perception or other of
heat or cold light or shade love or
hatred pain or pleasure I never can
catch myself at any time without a
perception and can never observe
anything but the perception Hume
concluded that we aren’t really the neat
definable people reason
tells us that we are and that we seem to
be when we look at ourselves in the
mirror or casually use that grand and
rather misleading word I we are nothing
but a bundle or collection of different
perceptions which succeed each other
with an inconceivable rapidity and are
in a perpetual flux and movement yet
despite being skeptical of temper Hume
was very happy for us to hold on to most
of our common sense beliefs because they
are what helped us to make our way in
the world trying to be rational about
everything is a special kind of madness
Hume was making a slide dig at Descartes
the French philosopher had died 60 years
before humors born but his intellectual
influence was still very much alive he
had argued that we should throw out
every fruit of the mind that wasn’t
perfectly rational but Hume proposed
that hardly anything we do is ever truly
rational and yet II ventured that most
reliefs are justified simply because
they work they’re useful to us they help
us to get on with what we want to do the
test of a belief isn’t it’s provable
truth but it’s utility Hume was offering
a corrective which we sometimes badly
need to our fascination with prestigious
but not actually very important logical
conundrums in opposition to academic
niceties he was a sceptical philosopher
who stood for common sense championing
the everyday and the wisdom of the
unlearned and the ordinary human
interest in the traditional
philosophical topic of ethics the
conundrum of how humans can be good he
argued that morality isn’t about having
moral ideas it’s about having been
trained from an early age in the art of
decency through the emotions being good
means getting into good habits of
feeling Hume was a great advocate of
qualities like wit good manners and
sympathy because these are the things
that make people nice to be around
outside of any rational plan to be good
he was hugely struck by the fact that a
person and here again he was thinking of
Descartes can be ostensibly rational and
yet not that nice because being able to
follow a complex argument or deduce
trends from data doesn’t make you
sensitive to the sufferings of others or
skilled at keeping your temper these
qualities are the work of our feelings
so if we want people to
–have well what we need to do is
rethink education we have to influence
the development of feeling we have to
encourage benevolence gentleness pity
and shame through the seduction of the
passionate sides of our nature without
delivering dry logical lectures Humes
philosophy always emerged as an attempt
to answer a personal question what is a
good life he wanted to know how his own
character and that of those around him
could be influenced for the best an
oddly for a philosopher he didn’t feel
that the traditional practice of
philosophy could really help though he
was scholarly he was in large part a man
of the world for some years he was an
advisor to the British ambassador in
Paris who welcomed his shrewd wisdom he
was much liked by those around him known
by the French as leborgne David a humane
kind and witty conversationalist much in
demand as a dinner companion be a
philosopher but amidst all your
philosophy be still a man he insisted
that’s the way Hume lived not in the
intellectual seclusion of a monastery or
an ivory tower but deeply embedded in
the company of other humans dining he
especially liked roast chicken chatting
about love and career and playing
backgammon Hume died in Edinburgh in
August 1776 at home in his house in st.
Andrews Square his doctor wrote about
the last hours to Adam Smith for many
years
Humes best friend he continued to the
last perfectly sensible and free from
much pain or feelings of distress he
never dropped the smallest expression of
impatience but when he had occasion to
speak to the people around him always
did it with affection and tenderness he
died in such a happy composure of mind
nothing could exceed it humour mains
that rather outstanding thing a
philosopher alive – how much philosophy has to learn from common sense
one of the world’s great philosophical
voices because he hit upon a key fact
about human nature that we are more
influenced by our feelings than by
reason this is at one level possibly a
great insult to our self-image but Hume
for that if we could learn to deal well
with his surprising fact we could be
both individually and collectively a
great deal karma and happier than if we
denied it Hume was born in Edinburgh in
1711 to a family that was long
established but far from rich he was the
second son and it was clear early on
that he would need to find a job
eventually but nothing seemed to suit
him he tried law the vocation of his
father and older brother but soon
decided that it was a laborious
profession requiring the drudgery of a
whole life he was considered for
academic posts at the University of
Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow
but he didn’t land either job so he set
out to become a public intellectual
someone who would make his money selling
books to the general public it was
pretty hard going his first book a
treatise of human nature for which he
had the highest hopes met with a dismal
reception never literary attempt was
more unfortunate than my treatise he
wrote it fell dead born from the press
without reaching such distinction as
even to excite a murmur among the
zealots but Hume kept at it realizing
that the blame largely lay with the way
he had expressed his ideas and doggedly
training himself to write in a more
accessible and popular manner eventually
he did find an audience his later works
popular history books and collections of
elegant essays were bestsellers of the
day as he would say not without some
pride the money given me by booksellers
much exceeded anything formerly known in
England I was to become not only
independent but opulent Humes philosophy
is built around a single powerful
observation that the key thing we need
to get right in life is feeling rather
than rationality it sounds like an odd
conclusion
you assume that what we need to do is
train our minds to be as rational as
possible to be devoted to evidence and
logical reasoning and committed to
preventing our feelings from getting in
the way but human sister that whatever
we may aim for reason is the slave of
passion we are more motivated by our
feelings than by any of the
comparatively feeble results of analysis
and logic few of our leading convictions
are driven by rational investigations of
the facts we decide whether someone is
admirable what to do with our spare time
what constitutes a successful career or
who to love on the basis of feeling
about anything else reason helps a
little but the decisive factors are
bound up with our emotional lives with
our passions as humans them Hume lived
in a time known as the age of Reason
when many claim that the glory of human
beings consists in their rationality but
for Hume a human is just another kind of
animal Hume was deeply attentive to the
curious way that we very often reasoned
from rather than to our convictions we
find an idea nice or threatening and on
that basis alone declare it true or
false reason only comes in later to
support the original attitude what Hume
didn’t believe however was that all
feelings are acceptable and equal that’s
why he firmly believed in the education
of the passions people have to learn to
be more benevolent more patient more at
ease with themselves and less afraid of
others but to be taught these things
they need an education system that
addresses feelings rather than reason
this is why Hume so deeply believed in
the role and significance of public
intellectuals these were people who
unlike university professors that Hume
grew to dislike immensely had to excite
a passion based attachment to ideas
wisdom and insight only if they
succeeded would they have the money to
eat it was for this reason that they had
to write well use colorful examples and
have recourse to wit and charm
Humes insight is that if you want to
change people’s beliefs reasoning with
them like a normal philosophy professor
won’t be the most effective strategy
he’s pointing out that we have to try to
adjust sentiments by sympathy
reassurance good example encouragement
and what he called our
and only later for a few determined
Souls should we ever try to make a case
on the basis of facts and logic a key
place where humaid use of the idea of
the priority of feeling over reason was
in connection with religion Hume didn’t
think it was rational to believe in God
that is he didn’t think they were
compelling logical arguments in favor of
the existence of a deity he himself
seems to have floated between mild
agnosticism there might be a God I’m
just not sure and mild Fae ISM there is
a God but it doesn’t make much
difference to me that there is however
the idea of a vindictive God someone
ready to punish people in an afterlife
and not believing in him in this one
this he considered a cruel superstition
Hume central point is that religious
belief isn’t the product of reason so
arguing for or against it on the basis
of facts doesn’t touch the core issue to
try to persuade someone to believe or
not believe with well honed arguments
seemed particularly daf-2 Hume this is
why he was a foremost offender of the
concept of religious toleration we
shouldn’t treat those who disagree with
us over religion as rational people
who’ve made an error of reasoning and so
need to be put right but rather as
passionate emotion driven creatures who
should be left in peace so long as they
do likewise with us trying to have a
rational argument over religion was for
Hume the height of folly and arrogance
Hume was what is technically known as a
skeptic someone committed to doubting a
lot of the common-sense ideas of the day
one of the things he doubted was the
concept of what is technically called
personal identity the idea that we have
that we can understand ourselves and
have a more or less graspable an
enduring identity that runs through life
hyouta doubt that there is no such thing
as a core self when I enter most
intimately into what I call myself he
famously explained I always stumble on
some particular perception or other of
heat or cold light or shade love or
hatred pain or pleasure I never can
catch myself at any time without a
perception and can never observe
anything but the perception Hume
concluded that we aren’t really the neat
definable people reason
tells us that we are and that we seem to
be when we look at ourselves in the
mirror or casually use that grand and
rather misleading word I we are nothing
but a bundle or collection of different
perceptions which succeed each other
with an inconceivable rapidity and are
in a perpetual flux and movement yet
despite being skeptical of temper Hume
was very happy for us to hold on to most
of our common sense beliefs because they
are what helped us to make our way in
the world trying to be rational about
everything is a special kind of madness
Hume was making a slide dig at Descartes
the French philosopher had died 60 years
before humors born but his intellectual
influence was still very much alive he
had argued that we should throw out
every fruit of the mind that wasn’t
perfectly rational but Hume proposed
that hardly anything we do is ever truly
rational and yet II ventured that most
reliefs are justified simply because
they work they’re useful to us they help
us to get on with what we want to do the
test of a belief isn’t it’s provable
truth but it’s utility Hume was offering
a corrective which we sometimes badly
need to our fascination with prestigious
but not actually very important logical
conundrums in opposition to academic
niceties he was a sceptical philosopher
who stood for common sense championing
the everyday and the wisdom of the
unlearned and the ordinary human
interest in the traditional
philosophical topic of ethics the
conundrum of how humans can be good he
argued that morality isn’t about having
moral ideas it’s about having been
trained from an early age in the art of
decency through the emotions being good
means getting into good habits of
feeling Hume was a great advocate of
qualities like wit good manners and
sympathy because these are the things
that make people nice to be around
outside of any rational plan to be good
he was hugely struck by the fact that a
person and here again he was thinking of
Descartes can be ostensibly rational and
yet not that nice because being able to
follow a complex argument or deduce
trends from data doesn’t make you
sensitive to the sufferings of others or
skilled at keeping your temper these
qualities are the work of our feelings
so if we want people to
–have well what we need to do is
rethink education we have to influence
the development of feeling we have to
encourage benevolence gentleness pity
and shame through the seduction of the
passionate sides of our nature without
delivering dry logical lectures Humes
philosophy always emerged as an attempt
to answer a personal question what is a
good life he wanted to know how his own
character and that of those around him
could be influenced for the best an
oddly for a philosopher he didn’t feel
that the traditional practice of
philosophy could really help though he
was scholarly he was in large part a man
of the world for some years he was an
advisor to the British ambassador in
Paris who welcomed his shrewd wisdom he
was much liked by those around him known
by the French as leborgne David a humane
kind and witty conversationalist much in
demand as a dinner companion be a
philosopher but amidst all your
philosophy be still a man he insisted
that’s the way Hume lived not in the
intellectual seclusion of a monastery or
an ivory tower but deeply embedded in
the company of other humans dining he
especially liked roast chicken chatting
about love and career and playing
backgammon Hume died in Edinburgh in
August 1776 at home in his house in st.
Andrews Square his doctor wrote about
the last hours to Adam Smith for many
years
Humes best friend he continued to the
last perfectly sensible and free from
much pain or feelings of distress he
never dropped the smallest expression of
impatience but when he had occasion to
speak to the people around him always
did it with affection and tenderness he
died in such a happy composure of mind
nothing could exceed it humour mains
that rather outstanding thing a
philosopher alive – how much philosophy has to learn from common sense
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