Autobiography david hume

In his autobiography written near the end of his life, David Hume describes himself as a “man of mild disposition, of command of temper, of an open, social, and cheerful humour, capable of attachment, but little susceptible of enmity, and of great moderation in all my passions.” Those who knew him agreed for the most part with his assessment.

Hume was born on February 24, 1711, in Edinburgh.

His father died when he was an infant, leaving him and his two older siblings in the care of his mother. Hume went with his older brother to the University of Edinburgh in 1723. He “passed through the ordinary course of education with success” and left the university without taking a degree.

Hume writes that from an early age, he “found an insurmountable Aversion to anything but the pursuits of Philosophy and General Learning,” and that his passion for literature (comprising philosophy and history) “has been the great ruling passion of my life, and the great source of my enjoyments.”

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