Synonyms:
Hume, David_Hume
Meaning: Scottish philosopher whose sceptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses (1711-1776)
Usage examples
HUME.
On this subject Hume is the classic.
"Since my last, Mr. Hume has passed his time pretty easily, but is much weaker.
I received, the day after, a letter from Mr. Hume himself, of which the following is an extract:--
There are difficulties in establishing Hume's principles, and doubts as to whether it is exactly true.
The cases of dreams and fever-delirium are as hard to adjust to Professor Stout's modified criterion as to Hume's.
But I believe that this criterion fails in very much the same instances as those in which Hume's criterion fails in its original form.
But, though Mr. Hume always talked of his approaching dissolution with great cheerfulness, he never affected to make any parade of his magnanimity.
Professor Stout, in his "Manual of Psychology," after discussing various ways of distinguishing sensations and images, arrives at a view which is a modification of Hume's.
Mr. Hume's magnanimity and firmness were such, that his most affectionate friends knew that they hazarded nothing in talking or writing to him as to a dying man, and that so far from being hurt by this frankness, he was rather pleased and flattered by it.