David Hume

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the work of the philosopher David Hume. A key figure in the Scottish Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, Hume was an empiricist who believed that humans can only have knowledge of things they have themselves experienced. Hume made a number of significant contributions to philosophy. He saw human nature as a manifestation of the natural world, rather than something above and beyond it. He gave a sceptical account of religion, which caused many to suspect him of atheism. He was also the author of a bestselling History of England. His works, beginning in 1740 with A Treatise of Human Nature, have influenced thinkers from Adam Smith to Immanuel Kant and Charles Darwin, and today he is regarded by some scholars as the most important philosopher ever to write in English.

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Guests

• Peter Millican 5 episodes
  Professor of Philosophy at the University of Oxford
• Helen Beebee 2 episodes
  Professor of Philosophy at the University of Birmingham
• James Harris No other episodes
  Senior Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of St Andrews

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Programme ID: b015cpfp

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015cpfp

Auto-category: 192 (Modern philosophy of the British Isles)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello, in the 18th century, the city of Edinburgh became the centre for an intellectual movement which has come to be known as the Scottish Enlightenment.