David Hume (1711-76)

Major works

•          Treatise of Human Nature

•          “Essay on Miracles”

Importance

•          Scottish philosopher and historian

•          Attacked both deism and orthodox Christianity

•          Said all of one’s knowledge is the product of experience (empiricist)

•          All religious sentiments grow out of two human emotions, hope and fear, especially fear

•          Argued the existence of God cannot be proved by arguments from cause and effect

•          Said the existence of God may not be established from reason or sense experience

•          Said the report of a miracle is much more likely to be a false report than an interruption in the uniform course of nature

•          Anticipated Kant by attacking ontological, cosmological, and teleological proofs for the existence of God