Editing David Hume (section)

== Early life ==
Hume was born on 26 April 1711, as David Home, in a [[tenement]] on the north side of [[Edinburgh]]'s [[Royal Mile|Lawnmarket]]. He was the second of two sons born to Catherine Home ([[Birth name|née]] [[Clan Keith|Falconer]]), daughter of Sir [[David Falconer]] of Newton, Midlothian and his wife Mary Falconer (née Norvell),<ref name=":2">Hume, David. 1778 [1776]. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20150813092134/http://davidhume.org/texts/mol.html My Own Life]." In ''The History of England, from the Invasion of Julius Cæsar to the Revolution in 1688'' 1. London. Archived from the [http://davidhume.org/texts/mol.html original] on 13 August 2015. Also available [https://web.archive.org/web/20180116061536/http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Texts/humelife.html via Rutgers University]. Retrieved 18 May 2020.</ref> and Joseph [[Clan Home|Home]] of [[Chirnside]] in the [[Berwickshire|County of Berwick]], an advocate of [[Chirnside#Ninewells House|Ninewells]]. Joseph died just after David's second birthday. Catherine, who never remarried, raised the two brothers and their sister on her own.<ref>Morris, Ted. 2018 [2013]. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20180401123150/http://www.humesociety.org/about/HumeBiography.asp David Hume Biography]." ''The Hume Society''. Retrieved 18 May 2020.</ref>

Hume changed his family name's spelling in 1734, as the surname 'Home' (pronounced as 'Hume') was not well-known in England. Hume never married and lived partly at his Chirnside family home in Berwickshire, which had belonged to the family since the 16th century. His finances as a young man were very "slender", as his family was not rich; as a younger son he had little [[wikt:patrimony|patrimony]] to live on.{{sfn|Hume|1778|p=3}}

Hume attended the [[University of Edinburgh]] at an unusually early age{{mdash}}either 12 or possibly as young as 10{{mdash}}at a time when 14 was the typical age. Initially, Hume considered a career in [[Scots law|law]], because of his family. However, in his words, he came to have:{{sfn|Hume|1778|p=3}}

<blockquote>...an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of Philosophy and general Learning; and while [my family] fanceyed I was poring over [[Johannes Voet|Voet]] and [[Arnold Vinnius|Vinnius]], [[Cicero]] and [[Virgil]] were the Authors which I was secretly devouring.</blockquote>

He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that "there is nothing to be learnt from a Professor, which is not to be met with in Books".{{sfn|Mossner|1958|pp=30–33|ps=, quoted in {{harvtxt|Wright|2009|p=10}}}} He did not graduate.{{sfn|Harris|2004|loc=[https://books.google.com/books?id=K2ygCgAAQBAJ&dq=Hume+did+not+graduate&pg=PA35 p. 35]}}

=== "Disease of the learned" ===
At around age 18, Hume made a philosophical discovery that opened up to him "a new Scene of Thought", inspiring him "to throw up every other Pleasure or Business to apply entirely to it".{{sfn|Hume|1993|p=346}} As he did not recount what this scene exactly was, commentators have offered a variety of speculations.{{Sfn|Johnson|1995|pp=8–9}} One prominent interpretation among contemporary Humean scholarship is that this new "scene of thought" was Hume's realisation that [[Francis Hutcheson (philosopher)|Francis Hutcheson]]'s theory of ''moral sense'' could be applied to the understanding of morality as well.

From this inspiration, Hume set out to spend a minimum of 10 years reading and writing. He soon came to the verge of a mental breakdown, first starting with a coldness{{mdash}}which he attributed to a "Laziness of Temper"{{mdash}}that lasted about nine months. [[Scurvy]] spots later broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose him with the "Disease of the Learned".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Butler |first=Matthew |date=2020-08-28 |title=David Hume and the ‘Disease of the Learned’ – psychiatry in philosophy |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/david-hume-and-the-disease-of-the-learned-psychiatry-in-philosophy/4A930169D13E967597ADCA354A0965D5 |journal=The British Journal of Psychiatry |language=en |volume=217 |issue=3 |pages=524–524 |doi=10.1192/bjp.2020.76 |issn=0007-1250}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Mossner |first=Ernest Campbell |title=Disease of the Learned |date=2001-02-22 |work=The Life of David Hume |pages=0 |editor-last=Mossner |editor-first=Ernest C. |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/26376/chapter-abstract/194705237?redirectedFrom=fulltext |access-date=2025-03-03 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-924336-5}}</ref>

Hume wrote that he "went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills", taken along with a pint of [[Bordeaux wine|claret]] every day. He also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning.{{sfn|Mossner|1950|p=193}} His health improved somewhat, but in 1731, he was afflicted with a ravenous appetite and [[palpitations]]. After eating well for a time, he went from being "tall, lean and raw-bon'd" to being "sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like."<ref>Hume, David. 1932 [1734] "Letter to a [Dr George Cheyne]". pp. 13–15 in ''The Letters of David Hume'' 1, edited by [[J. Y. T. Greig]]. Oxford: [[Oxford University Press]]. {{ISBN|978-0-19-186158-1}}. {{doi|10.1093/actrade/9780199693245.book.1}}.</ref>{{sfn|Mossner|1980|p=[https://archive.org/details/lifeofdavidhume0000moss/page/204 204]}}<ref>Wright, John P. 2003. "Dr. George Cheyne, Chevalier Ramsay, and Hume's Letter to a Physician." ''[[Hume Studies]]'' 29(1):125–141. – via [[Project MUSE]]. {{doi|10.1353/hms.2011.0100}}.</ref> Indeed, Hume would become well known for being obese and having a fondness for good port and cheese, often using them as philosophical metaphors for his conjectures.{{sfn|Mossner|1980|p=[[iarchive:lifeofdavidhume0000moss/page/204|204]]}}