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 The philosopher, economist and historian David Hume was born in Edinburgh. Attending the university there, he was introduced to the work of John Locke
and Isaac Newton, whose ideas were to have a decisive influence upon his life. In 1734 he withdrew to the relative peace of La Fléche in France where he
wrote his three-volume "A Treatise of Human Nature". Far from bringing the acclaim for which he had hoped, the Treatise, as Hume put it, "fell still-born
from the press". It was not until the publication in 1748 of the more accessible "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" that he achieved the philosophical recognition he
deserved. Other important treatises followed including "An Enquiry Concerning the Principals of Morals"and "Dialogues concerning Natural Religion". His six volume "History of England"
(1754-62), was to have a lasting influence on historiography in Britain. Hume ranks alongside Locke as the leading British Empiricism. His epistemology includes a
profound critique od empirical knowledge, based on fundamental distinction between impressions (sensation and feeling) and ideas (thought) and an analysis of the roles of
memory and imagination, in the course of which Hume expounds the argument for which he is perhaps most famous concerning the problem of induction. In his moral philosophy by
holding morality to be grounded in feeling and virtues to be such on account of their social usefulness, Hume reveals himself a precursor of 19th century Utilitarianism. His mercantilism
in contrast, identifies the politico-economic end as being, not the wealth of states but affluence's of their citizens. David Hume 1711-1776
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