Edinburgh Enlightenment & David Hume: The Great Infidel

Of all the statues on Edinburgh’s historic Royal Mile, David Hume, the great philosopher, is perhaps the oddest. 

He sits on his plinth, nine feet tall, scantily clad in the robes of an ancient Greek, a protruding big toe polished smooth by the touch of countless passers-by. 

But Hume was no ancient Greek. He was an 18th-century Scot born just yards from where his statue now stands. From his perch, he has the perfect view of St Giles’ Cathedral where, back in his day, believers fussed and fretted over his controversial views on God. 

In matters of religion, Hume was famously—and firmly—sceptical. It was a brave position to take in pious 1700s Scotland. And one that made him enemies, cost him work and earned him the unwelcome labels of ‘atheist’ and ‘infidel.’ 

In 1745, for example, Hume came close to being named chair of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University. The appointment was blocked by the capital’s senior clergy. Interestingly, it was his lack of religious fervour—and not his outdated and racist belief that white people were an inherently superior race—that cost him this position. 

Six years later, he was overlooked for a similar position at Glasgow University, again because of his presumed atheism. 

In the mid-1750s, Hume only narrowly escaped being hauled before a Church of Scotland court on damaging charges of heresy. 

 

Would David Hume have regretted being so open about his scepticism? 

Was it worth it? 

Might he perhaps have been wiser to have held his tongue and settled for an easy life? Better to have kept his views close to his chest—like his friend and fellow philosopher Adam Smith—and thus been rewarded with a comfortable teaching position at a top university? 

The dead can’t speak of course, but we can speculate on how Hume would respond. 

Even without a prestigious academic position, Hume established himself as a towering figure in Scottish thought and Scottish history. For many, he is simply the greatest philosopher ever to write in the English language. 

And the way Hume faced his final illness also suggests a man who lived a life without regrets, and who cared little where his controversial views on religion might lead him, least of all post mortem. 

 

David Hume’s impact on Edinburgh history 

The writer James Boswell, a churchgoer, paid Hume a visit six weeks before the end, expecting to come away with proof that no one could remain sceptical about God in the face of suffering and death. 

But to his surprise, Boswell found the dying philosopher calm, relaxed and in a positive frame of mind, while also remaining as decisively and unambiguously sceptical as ever. 

David Hume died of cancer at his home in Edinburgh’s New Town on 25 August 1776, aged 65. There was of course no deathbed conversion to the church, to the great disappointment of many clergymen. 

Four days later, a large crowd stood in heavy rain outside his house in St David Street to pay their respects before his funeral. 

As the coffin was carried out, one man shouted, ‘Ye ken he was an atheist!’ To which another responded, ‘Aye, but he was honest!’ 

Do we think David Hume regretted his atheist beliefs? The answer, surely, has to be no. 

Discover Edinburgh at the moment it transformed the worlds of history, science, literature and philosophy. Join us on 28 June for an Enlightenment Edinburgh tour to experience a city that was home to an extraordinary concentration of great minds. EH residents go free!