A. Maurin (lithograph), printed by Villain, 'David Hume Esqr.', c. 1820, lithograph, New York Public Library, Emmet Collection of Manuscripts Etc. Relating to American History (EM2982), public domain · Lithographic portrait lettered 'DAVID HUME ESQr.' with 'A. Maurin' at lower left and 'Lith. de Villain' at lower right, an early nineteenth-century French print made well after Hume's death; held by the New York Public Library (Emmet Collection of Manuscripts Etc. Relating to American History, item EM2982). The scan was downscaled once from 3,528 x 4,831 pixels to 876 x 1,200 pixels; nothing was upscaled. Shown as a later print depiction, not as a documented sitting. Caveat: the New York Public Library item page was behind an anti-bot challenge, so the museum-side record could not be opened; the date 1820 is as transcribed on the Wikimedia Commons file page from the library record, and the basis rests on the age of the print (the lithographer Antoine Maurin and the printer both lived and worked in nineteenth-century France, so the print is far older than 1931 whatever its exact year). · Public domain (early nineteenth-century lithograph; New York Public Library scan)

philosopher · Early Modern

David Hume

1711–1776

Known For

historicalliterarycultural

Wikidata

Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.

Trait Constellation

Key Achievements

He set out to apply an experimental method of observation to the mind and morals in A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) and the two Enquiries, work that the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and the National Galleries of Scotland place at the centre of the Scottish Enlightenment.

He wrote the six-volume History of England (1754-62), which the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy says gave him a reputation as a historian equal to, if not above, his reputation as a philosopher.

His essays on money and trade in Political Discourses (1752) made an empirical argument against mercantilism that Econlib calls a building block of classical economics.

Moments That Reveal Them

When opponents circulated lists of 'dangerous propositions' from the Treatise during his 1744-45 bid for the Edinburgh chair of moral philosophy, he published a point-by-point anonymous reply, the Letter from a Gentleman; 12 of the 15 city ministers still voted against him and he withdrew.

This episode is consistent with answering critics in print and then stepping back rather than forcing an open confrontation. Conflict Tolerance

After the Treatise drew little notice, he judged that its style rather than its content was at fault and recast Book I as the shorter Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748) and Book III as the Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals (1751).

This is consistent with changing the form of the work, not its aim, when a first approach failed. Adaptability

Turning Points

In 1752, shut out of university posts, he became librarian of the Advocates Library in Edinburgh, which the Stanford Encyclopedia says gave him the access he used to begin a career as a historian; the first volume of his History of England followed in 1754.

This is consistent with using whatever post was available to equip a new line of work. Resourcefulness