"Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."

— David Hume

David Hume Tee

"Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."

$24.99

Shipping to most locations included in price. + $1.75 est. tax (US estimate)

Era: Enlightenment

Region: European

David Hume

David Hume

1711 – 1776
Enlightenment European

David Hume (1711–1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, and essayist who is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy. His A Treatise of Human Nature developed a thoroughgoing empiricist and skeptical philosophy that challenged the foundations of metaphysics and rationalist philosophy. Hume argued that all human knowledge derives from sensory experience and that our beliefs about cause and effect rest not on logical necessity but on the psychological habit of associating events that regularly occur together—a position known as the problem of induction that remains central to philosophy of science. He extended his skepticism to personal identity, arguing that the self is nothing more than a bundle of perceptions with no underlying substance. His Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion offered a devastating critique of the argument from design for God's existence. Despite the radical nature of his philosophy, Hume was celebrated in his lifetime as a historian and as a genial, sociable man known for his good humor.

View all quotes →