PHILOSOPHY - David Hume

The 18th century writer, David Hume, is one of the world's great philosophical voices

because he hit upon a key fact about human nature-

that we are more influenced by our feelings than by reason.

This is, at one level, possibly a great insult to our self image,

but Hume thought that if we could learn to deal well with this surprising fact,

we could be both individually and collectively a great deal calmer and happier than if we denied it.

Hume was born in Edinburgh in 1711, to a family that was long established but far from rich.

He was the second son and it was clear early on that he would need to find a job eventually,

but nothing seemed to suit him.

He tried law, the vocation of his father and his older brother,

but soon decided that it was: "a laborious profession, requiring the drudgery of a whole life."

He was considered for academic posts at the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow,

but he didn't land either job.

So, he set out to become a public intellectual, someone who would make his money selling books to the general public.

It was pretty hard-going.

His first book, 'A Treatise of Human Nature', for which he had the highest hopes, met with a dismal reception.

"Never literary attempt was more unfortunate than my Treatise", he wrote.

"It fell dead-born from the press, without reaching such distinction as to even excite a murmur along the zealots."

But Hume kept at it, realising that the blame largely lay with the way that he had expressed his ideas.

And doggedly training himself to write in a more accessible and popular manner,

eventually, he did find an audience.

his later works: popular history books and collections of elegant essays were best-sellers of the day.

As he would say, not without some pride:

"The money given me by booksellers much exceeded anything formerly known in England;

I was to become not only independent but opulent."

Humes philosophy is built around a single powerful observation:

that the key thing we need to get right in life is feeling rather than rationality.

It sounds like an odd conclusion.

Normally we assume that what we need to do is train our minds to be as rational as possible,

to be devoted to evidence and logical reasoning and committed to preventing our feelings from getting in the way.

But Hume insisted that whatever we may aim for - reason is the slave of passion.

We are more motivated by our feelings than by any of the comparatively feeble results of analysis and logic.

Few of our leading convictions had driven by rational investigations of the facts.

We decide whether someone is admirable, what to do with our spare time,