David Hume: his notes on blacks 'kick' him out of his university

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For almost everyone over the age of 17, the name David Hume (1711-1776) will sound familiar.

His thinking is one of the obligatory points in the curriculum of the History of Philosophy subject, as the

at the level of Voltaire and Rousseau.

His best-known idea is the rejection of cause-effect relationships in science, symbolized in his example of a ball hitting another on a pool table.

But his contributions, which left their mark on Kant, Popper or even Einstein, have now come in second place in favor of some racist ideas from 250 years ago that the

movement

has returned to air.

For this reason, the University of Edinburgh, where Hume taught, has decided to rename the great central tower of its complex of buildings,

Or, as

would say

Hume canceled.

The Scottish University acknowledges in a statement the influence of the murder of George Floyd and the

campaign

in making the decision.

This has been due "to the sensitivities that can be affected by asking students to use a building named after an 18th century philosopher whose comments on race issues, while not infrequent during his time,

.

But what did Hume say for this ripping of garments?

It all comes from a footnote in his

1753

book

Which reads like this:

. There was seldom a civilized nation of that complexion, not even an individual. eminent in action or speculation. There are no ingenious manufactures among them, nor arts, nor sciences (...) There are black slaves scattered throughout Europe and in them no signs of ingenuity have been discovered (...) In Jamaica However, there is talk of a black who takes part in learning, but is surely admired for meager achievements, like a parrot who has learned to say several words. "

In this Hume was not very different from other illustrious thinkers of the time, such as Voltaire and Kant, although he was from the theses of Diderot and Rousseu.

In reality, the concept of "racism" is only about 100 years old (approximately, since the triumph of the Russian Revolution) and until then it was scientifically acceptable to argue that

as a whole.

Even eugenics, which aimed to improve humanity by eliminating the weakest, was embraced by the most progressive minds.

And until a few decades ago, the US Democratic Party defended the interests of the southern states of the country that

.

Hume revised this note shortly before he died, changing small details, but deliberately maintaining his reasoning for the inferiority of blacks.

This idea was contested by some of his colleagues, such as James Beattie.

Hume himself wrote several times against the practice of slavery, although his argument

rather than on what we understand today by anti-racism.

The idea was taken for centuries like that, a side note in the middle of one of the most lucid and influential intellectual productions in the history of thought.

However, last July an investigator discovered a letter from Hume sent to his employer, Lord Hertford, encouraging him to acquire a plantation on the island of Granada (whose workers had to be slaves of sub-Saharan origin).

Also another to the governor of Martinique, to act on behalf of his friend

.

The research team that made the discovery was the one that proposed the removal of Hume's name from the building, a decision contested by many professors, many of them of African descent.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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