Editorial

More Mr Nice Guy

by Rick Lewis

With this issue we wish a very happy 300th birthday to the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Many people call him the greatest philosopher ever to have written in the English language, so we’re glad that his birthday gives us an excuse (not that we really needed one) to take a look at some of his main ideas and consider whether and why they still matter today.

As Tim Madigan says in his column, David Hume was regarded by his eighteenth century contemporaries as a really nice guy. Celebrated in Scotland, fêted in France, Hume had a wide circle of adoring friends. He was the great thinker you’d most like to go to the pub with.

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