Hume

His mother found him to be acutely intelligent and was his main educator throughout his childhood. Little more is known of his early childhood. .
             Hume began his stint at the University of Edinburgh in 1723, at the age of 12. Initially, Hume decided to study law, but after three years he shifted his focus to an intense curriculum of eclectic study of his own devising. After the university his health decayed and after a battle with sickness he matriculated to France in 1734. There he began work on his most famous writing, his Treatise on Human Nature. The first two volumes of The Treatise were published anonymously in 1739.
             Hume's Treatise presented radical philosophical ideas and defined Hume as one of the first skeptics. Hume discounted human reason, downplaying it to a habitual association of specific experiences or sensations. He believed that reason could not explain causation and that all human beings know is what they are currently sensing. Therefore human experience is merely a string of unconnected sense impressions. This leads to a rejection of scientific laws, and the notion of self. He defined humans as a collection of different perceptions. Although human promoted this radical philosophy he did acknowledge that human beings needed to think in terms of cause and effect or they would go mad. The Treatise continues and addresses ethics. Hume denies the reasonableness of right and wrong. He believed morality was simply a factor in one's pursuit of personal happiness. According to Hume, the ultimate good in morality is benevolence. This is an unselfish regard for the general welfare of society.
             Hume's Treatise, written when he was 27, received little acclaim at the time. Following its publication Hume returned to his family estate outside of Edinburgh. Hume finally achieved some recognition with the popularity of The Essays, Moral and Political. In The Essays Hume addressed problems that arose in ethics and the concept of political economics.