David Hume (1711 to 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist, best known for his empiricism and his scepticism about knowledge and causation. His A Treatise of Human Nature set out a naturalistic study of the mind, and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding works through the origins of ideas and the limits of reason. In An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals he argued that ethics rests on sentiment rather than abstract principle, while in his lifetime he was chiefly known for his History of England.
