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David Hume Essay, Research Paper

David Hume was a very intelligent man. He was a well-known Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian. He was one of the major intellectual figures of the eighteenth century. Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on the twenty-sixth of April, 1711:

[He] was from good family, both by father and mother: [his] father s family is a branch of the earl of Home s or Hume s; and [his] ancestor s had

been proprietors of the estate which [his] brother posses, for several generations. [His] mother was daughter of Sir David Falconer, president of the college of justice.

His father, Joseph Hume, and his mother, Katherine Falconer, had grown up together as stepbrother and stepsister on the family estate of Ninewells in Berwickshire. [His] father died when [he] was an infant, leaving [him] with an elder brother and a si

er, under the care of [their] mother, a woman of singular merit, who, though young and handsome, devoted herself entirely to the rearing and educating of her children (qtd from Freeman v-vi).

Hume was raised by his mother and at the age of eighteen, he attended the University of Edinburgh. He was an exceptional student, and his mother, noting his brilliance, hoped he would persue a career in the law, a tradition in his family. Hume, however

was interested only in philosophy and general learning (Falcone 82).

Hume most probably choose to study philosophy, not only because of his interest, but because during that period there was a boom in philosophical thinking. Some called it the Age of Enlightenment. During the eighteenth century, the Industrial Revolutio

changed economies and resulted in some changes in thinking. The most immediate changes were in the nature of production: what was produced, as well as where and how. Labor was transferred from the production of primary products to the production of m

ufactured goods and services. This, of course, had profound effects on economic thinking.

One of the changes in economic thinking in the eighteenth century was the thought that mercantilism was inadequate. Mercantilism was an economic policy which prevailed in Europe during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. These policies stressed gove

mental control over industry and trade in accordance with the theory that national strength is increased by an influence of exports and imports. Mercantilism usually ended up in the abuse of a nation s colonies (like the American colonies), by not allo

ng them to trade with other countries. It also demanded that the colonies give all they had to the mother country. This restricted how people wanted to trade and live their lives. This lead to thoughts of how a political and economic units could work to

ther with maximum benefit for both. These thoughts were grouped into a theories of free trade or capitalism. This viewpoint received its most important expression in The Wealth of Nations (1776) by the British economist Adam Smith, who was of course inf

enced by his close friend, David Humes.

David Humes may have influenced Adam Smith in the way of economic thinking, but most of his interest lay in philosophical thought. Hume found law distasteful, and enthusiastically plunged into the study of literature and philosophy. Hume later observed

hat his studies were the ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my enjoyment (Wolff 181). Due to his passion for thinking, he came to be one of the major intellectual figures of eighteenth century Europe.

From 1734 to 1737 Hume occupied himself intensively with the problems of speculative philosophy and during this period wrote his most important philosophical work, A Treatise of Human Nature, which embodies the essence of his thinking. In spite of its

portance, this work was ignored by the public. Hume s later works were written in the lighter essay or dialogue forms that were very popular in his day.

After the publication of the Treatise, he turned his attention to the problems of ethics and political economy and wrote Essays Moral and Political, which attained immediate success. He failed to obtain an appointment to the faculty of the University

Edinburgh, probably because, even in his early career, he was regarded as a religious skeptic. Hume became, successively, tutor to the insane marquis of Annandale and judge advocate to a British military expedition to France. His Philosophical Essays C

cerning Human Understanding appeared in 1748. This book is perhaps his best known work, but recognized later for his its philosophical content.

Hume s next work to be published was Political Discourses (1752). This book contained his economic essays, where he discusses money, interest, taxes, the balance of trade, and commerce. This book was the only work recognized during this time, that rece

ed a significant amount of attention (Falcone 82). John V. Price says about Hume and Political Discourses:

The extent and effectiveness of Hume s economic thought are not necessarily indicated by the quantity of his writings on economics. He wrote only nine

essays that, strictly speaking, could be called economic essays: Of Commerce, Of Luxury, Of Money, Of Interest, Of the Balance of Trade, Of the Balance of Power, Of Taxes, Of

Public Credit, and Of the Jealousy of Trade. . . Hume s discussion of economics is neither systematic nor thorough; nevertheless, his ideas on economics have been thought to be among the most valuable written in

the eighteenth–or any–century (Price 77).

These discourses turned the searchlight of rational and historical inquiry upon problems of vast interest to an age that was slowly sloughing itself out of mercantilism. The most important features of the new free trade capitalistic thinking is prese

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