David Hume

Hello! My name is David Hume. I was a philosopher, which is a big word for someone who loves to think about big questions. I was born a very long time ago, on May 7th, 1711, in a beautiful city called Edinburgh in Scotland. Even when I was a little boy, I loved books more than anything. I would read and read, and my head was always buzzing with new ideas and questions about the world.

I was so eager to learn that I went to the University of Edinburgh when I was only about twelve years old! That's much younger than most students. I spent my time thinking about how we know what we know. I decided that we learn everything by seeing, hearing, and feeling things for ourselves. This is called experience. I wrote down all my thoughts in a big book called 'A Treatise of Human Nature' around the year 1739. I wanted to help people understand their own minds and how we learn about everything around us.

Besides being a philosopher, I was also a historian. I loved learning about the past and wrote a huge, famous book called 'The History of England,' which I started working on in 1754. My work took me on adventures, and I even got to travel and live in Paris, France, where I made many wonderful friends. People said I was cheerful and kind. I loved having good conversations with people, sharing ideas, and laughing together.

I lived a happy and full life for 65 years. Today, people still read my books and talk about my ideas. I am remembered for encouraging everyone to ask questions, to think for themselves, and to be curious about the world around them. And that is my biggest wish for you, too: always keep thinking and learning!