外國(guó)人最想和你聊的名人話題：大衛(wèi)·休謨

　About Hume　關(guān)于休謨

     David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, known especially for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. He is regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of Western philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. Hume is often grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist.
     Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature. In stark opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behavior, saying famously:"Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." A prominent figure in the skeptical philosophical tradition and a strong empiricist, he argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding instead that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience. Thus he divides perceptions between strong and lively "impressions" or direct sensations and fainter "ideas," which are copied from impressions. He developed the position that mental behavior is governed by "custom"; our use of induction, for example, is justified only by our idea of the"constant conjunction" of causes and effects. Without direct impressions of a metaphysical "self," he concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self. Hume advocated a compatibilist theory of free will that proved extremely influential on subsequent moral philosophy. He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles. Hume also examined the normative is-ought problem. He held notoriously ambiguous views of Christianity, but famously challenged the argument from design in his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779).
     Kant credited Hume with waking him up from his "dogmatic slumbers" and Hume has proved extremely influential on subsequent philosophy, especially on utilitarianism, logical positivism, William James, philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive philosophy, and other movements and thinkers. The philosopher Jerry Fodor proclaimed Hume's Treatise "the founding document of cognitive science". Also famous as a prose stylist, Hume pioneered the essay as a literary genre and engaged with contemporary intellectual luminaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Adam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy), James Boswell, Joseph Butler, and Thomas Reid.
     大衛(wèi)·休謨，蘇格蘭哲學(xué)家，出生在蘇格蘭的一個(gè)貴族家庭，曾經(jīng)學(xué)過(guò)法律，并從事過(guò)商業(yè)活動(dòng)。1734年，休謨第一次到法國(guó)，在法國(guó)他開(kāi)始研究哲學(xué)，并從事著述活動(dòng)。1763年，休謨又去法國(guó)，擔(dān)任英國(guó)駐法國(guó)使館的秘書，代理過(guò)公使。1752年至1761年，休謨?cè)M(jìn)行過(guò)英國(guó)史的編撰工作。休謨的主要著作有：《人性論》(1739--1740)、《人類理解研究》(1748)、《道德原則研究》(1752)和《宗教的自然史》(1757)等。與約翰·洛克（John Locke）及喬治·貝克萊（George Berkeley）并稱三大英國(guó)經(jīng)驗(yàn)主義者。
     他最先是以歷史學(xué)家的身份成名。他所著的《英格蘭史》一書在當(dāng)時(shí)成為英格蘭歷史學(xué)界的基礎(chǔ)著作長(zhǎng)達(dá)60至70年。歷史學(xué)家們一般將休謨的哲學(xué)歸類為徹底的懷疑主義，但一些人主張自然主義也是休謨的中心思想之一。研究休謨的學(xué)者經(jīng)常分為那些強(qiáng)調(diào)懷疑成分的以及那些強(qiáng)調(diào)自然主義成分的人。他首倡近代不可知論，對(duì)感覺(jué)之外的任何存在持懷疑態(tài)度，對(duì)外部世界的客觀規(guī)律性和因果必然性持否定態(tài)度。他認(rèn)為，感性知覺(jué)是認(rèn)識(shí)的唯一對(duì)象，知覺(jué)分印象和觀念兩類，但認(rèn)為人們不可能超出知覺(jué)去解決知覺(jué)的來(lái)源問(wèn)題。否認(rèn)因果聯(lián)系的客觀性，認(rèn)為因果聯(lián)系只是由于印象出現(xiàn)先后而形成的一種觀念。在倫理觀上，主張功利主義，認(rèn)為快樂(lè)和利益是一致的。他還用其經(jīng)驗(yàn)論、懷疑論和功利主義倫理學(xué)論述了有關(guān)上帝觀念和宗教問(wèn)題。