The Enlightenment and Hume

David Hume was arguably the wisest and most talented philosopher in the English language, not only in the 18th century, but perhaps ever. He abandoned philosophy when his major work, Atreides of Human Nature, fell still born from the press - largely because people didn't know what to make of it. But after that failure, he wanted to be a successful man of letters, so changed his whole approach to writing. His writings served as a kind of conduit between the world of learning, which he had clearly mastered, and the world of conversation.