The ultimate skeptic. He dismantled causal necessity and the unified self, anchoring moral judgments in sentiment and sparking Kant's dogmatic slumber.
The leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. Genial and sociable, Hume was beloved in Parisian salons as 'le bon David.' His skepticism and irreligion barred him from academic chairs, but his *History of England* brought literary fame. He faced death with extraordinary composure, discussing classical literature with friends in his final days.
Hume reduced epistemology to its empirical foundations. The mind contains only 'impressions' (vivid sensory data) and 'ideas' (their faint copies); any idea lacking an impression is meaningless. He dismantled two pillars of metaphysics: the self (which is merely a bundle of fleeting perceptions, not a substantial entity) and causality (we observe only constant conjunction — one event following another — never necessary connection; causation is psychological habit, not logical necessity). 'Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.'
"Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions. Custom is the great guide of human life."
休谟把‘因果律’解构为‘不过是人习惯性的心理期待’。这意味着，你绝对相信太阳明天一定生起、水放到严寒下必定结冰，在最严格的绝对逻辑上它们并不是必定的，明天一切可能完全失控。没有绝对因果保证，我们应当如何构筑自己勇敢在荒诞尘世采取行动的感性信念？
Hume's dismantling of causality as mere psychological habit threw the foundations of science into crisis. Kant was roused from his 'dogmatic slumber' and undertook a Copernican revolution: causal necessity is not a feature of things-in-themselves but a category imposed by the mind, structuring experience *a priori*. Science is possible because the mind legislates laws to nature.
Is causal necessity an objective feature of the external world, or is it a mental framework — an 'operating system' the mind installs to organize experience (Kant)?
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