Definition for Hume, David
From Biology Forums Dictionary
Hume, David (1711 to 1776): Philosopher and historian, born in Scotland, UK. He studied at Edinburgh, and took up law. In his masterpiece, A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), he consolidated and extended the empiricist tradition. His views became widely known only when he wrote two volumes of Essays Moral and Political (1741-2). He wrote the posthumously published Dialogues concerning Natural Religion in the 1750s. His atheism kept him from receiving professorships at Edinburgh and Glasgow, and he became a tutor, secretary, and keeper of the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh.