Blackwell Reference Online

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David Hume (April 26, 1711–August 25, 1776) was born in Edinburgh. For three years, beginning in 1734, Hume lived in France (after that returning to London), during which time he wrote the Treatise of Human Nature . This work is divided into three books, the first dealing with the understanding, the second with the passions, and the third with morals. Hume thought of himself as the Newton of the moral sciences, and, therefore, he utilized the Newtonian scientific (or, as he refers to it, the “Experimental”) method. It is the second and third books of this work that pertain most directly to sociology. In the second book, Hume attempts to understand how our passions and feelings arise in connection with the actions and behavior of others; in the third, he attempts to understand how, in the interactions between and among people, moral distinctions (good and evil) and values (such as justice) arise. At the time, there were two main schools of thought – one that argued that morality and value formation arise through reason, and one that argued that these concepts arise through passion and sentiment. Hume sides with the latter group, arguing that, once the role of reason is understood, it becomes clear that values are not rational, and reason can never be a motive for any action. Reason can, at most, assist passion and sentiment in calculating the feasibility of the goals that passions ... log in or subscribe to read full text