David Hume and the Enlightenment Era
The Enlightenment: Context for Hume’s Philosophy
The historical context for the thought of David Hume (1711-1776) is the eighteenth century, a period widely known as the “Enlightenment.” This era essentially spans the entire eighteenth century, particularly from 1688—when the Whig Revolution triumphed in England—until 1789—the year of the French Revolution. However, it’s important to note that the Enlightenment developed at different times and acquired peculiar characteristics in each country.
Historical and Political Landscape
The central part of this century can be regarded as a period of relative calm, having been preceded by the so-called “religious wars” and followed by a series of “revolutionary wars,” including the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789).
Politically, the most common form of government was the “absolute monarchy,” often “disguised” as “enlightened despotism,” whose motto was “all for the people but without the people.” However, new political ideas born in the English Enlightenment (1688), such as parliamentary government and the separation of powers, spread throughout Europe. These ideas significantly influenced the American Revolution (1776) and the French Revolution (1789). Absolutism and feudal society were gradually abolished by this revolutionary spirit. This movement culminated in France under the Napoleonic Empire and progressively spread across Europe during the nineteenth century, dismantling the old regime and leading to the triumph of bourgeois parliamentary democracies.
Social and Economic Transformations
At the social and cultural level, the mid-eighteenth century witnessed a significant population increase in European society. This growth resulted from a period of relative peace, improved economic conditions, higher agricultural yields, and the beginnings of the First Industrial Revolution (1750-1840). These developments had profound consequences for the existing social structure: the old absolutist system of estates, which favored the nobility and clergy over the bourgeoisie, artisans, and peasants (the Third Estate), was challenged. The bourgeoisie gained immense economic power and, in parallel, began to demand political rights.
The Spirit of Enlightenment
The eighteenth century is synonymous with the Enlightenment, the “Age of Reason.” The learned thinkers of this era advocated for:
- An independent and critical reason
- A strong interest in science
- The secularization of thought
- Universal knowledge, famously embodied in the Encyclopédie
- A belief in progress and human development through education
- A natural, tolerant religion devoid of rigid dogma
- The defense of political freedom
This enlightened spirit permeated all forms of knowledge:
Scientific and Artistic Flourishing
- In science, Newton’s physics stood out. Furthermore, research findings were widely disseminated and popularized through periodicals and academies.
- In art, Neoclassicism dominated, characterized by its sobriety in contrast to the excesses of the Baroque.
- Music reached new heights of beauty thanks to composers such as Handel, Mozart, and Haydn.
- Also of significant note was the publication of the Encyclopédie, a monumental work that sought to collect and disseminate all human knowledge.
Philosophical Currents of the Age
In the Age of Enlightenment, philosophy played a primary role, unifying and substantiating the various efforts to achieve individual emancipation based on independent and critical reason. This century began with Hume’s new empiricism, which marked a fresh understanding of enlightened reason. This stood in clear contrast to the approach taken by rationalism (represented by Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz), as it viewed reason as subject to experience, considering experience as both the origin and the limits of knowledge.
At the same time, a fundamental figure in moral and political philosophy entered the scene: Jean-Jacques Rousseau, whom Immanuel Kant considered the “Newton of the moral world.”
Hume’s Empiricism and Kant’s Synthesis
These and other lines of thought culminated in the German philosopher Immanuel Kant, who achieved a privileged synthesis that transcended them. His great purpose was to answer the fundamental question: “What is man?” This involved developing a theory of knowledge, based on Newton’s science, which synthesized the best aspects of rationalism and empiricism, thereby overcoming the limitations of each (dogmatism and skepticism).
Having answered the question “What can I know?”, Kant then sought to address two further questions to fulfill his objective: “What should I do?” and “What may I hope?”