Page "David Hume" Paragraph 1

Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature ( 1739 ), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic " science of man " that examined the psychological basis of human nature.

In stark opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behavior, saying: " Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.

" A prominent figure in the sceptical philosophical tradition and a strong empiricist, he argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding instead that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience.

Thus he divides perceptions between strong and lively " impressions " or direct sensations and fainter " ideas ", which are copied from impressions.

He developed the position that mental behaviour is governed by " custom ", that is acquired ability ; our use of induction, for example, is justified only by our idea of the " constant conjunction " of causes and effects.

Without direct impressions of a metaphysical " self ", he concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self.