title: Cessna 172

text: The 172RG did not find wide acceptance in the personal aircraft market because of higher initial and operating costs accompanied by mediocre cruising speed, but was adopted by many flight schools since it met the specific requirements for "complex aircraft" experience necessary to obtain a Commercial Pilot certificate (the role for which it was intended), at relatively low cost. Between 1980 and 1984 1,177 RGs were built, with a small number following before production ceased in 1985.


title: Cessna 172

text: While numbered and marketed as a 172, the 172RG was actually certified on the Cessna 175 type certificate.


title: Cessna 172

text: The FR172 Reims Rocket was produced by Reims Aviation in France from the late 1960s to the mid-1970s. It was powered by a Rolls-Royce built, fuel-injected, Continental IO-360-H(B) engine with a constant-speed propeller. Variants included the FR172E until FR172J.


title: Cessna 172

text: The Reims Rocket led to Cessna producing the R172K Hawk XP, a model available from 1977 to 1981 from both Wichita and Reims. This configuration featured a fuel-injected, Continental IO-360K (later IO-360KB) derated to with a two-bladed, constant-speed propeller. The Hawk XP was capable of a cruise speed.


title: Cessna 172

text: Owners claimed that the increased performance of the "XP" didn't compensate for its increased purchase price and the higher operating costs associated with the larger engine. The aircraft was well accepted for use on floats, however, as the standard 172 is not a strong floatplane, even with only two people on board, while the XP's extra power improves water takeoff performance dramatically.


title: Cessna 172

text: While numbered and marketed as 172s, the R172J and R172K models are actually certified on the Cessna 175 type certificate.


title: Cessna 172

text: Model introduced in July 2014 for 2015 customer deliveries, powered by a Continental CD-155 diesel engine installed by the factory under a supplemental type certificate. Initial retail price in 2014 was $435,000. The model has a top speed of and burns per hour less fuel than the standard 172. As a result, the model has an range, an increase of more than 38% over the standard 172. This model is a development of the proposed and then cancelled Skyhawk TD. Cessna has indicated that the JT-A will be made available in 2016.


title: Cessna 172

text: In reviewing this new model Paul Bertorelli of AVweb said: "I’m sure Cessna will find some sales for the Skyhawk JT-A, but at $420,000, it’s hard to see how it will ignite much market expansion just because it’s a Cessna. It gives away $170,000 to the near-new Redbird Redhawk conversion which is a lot of change to pay merely for the smell of a new airplane. Diesel engines cost more than twice as much to manufacture as gasoline engines do and although their fuel efficiency gains back some of that investment, if the complete aircraft package is too pricey, the debt service will eat up any savings, making a new aircraft not just unattractive, but unaffordable. I haven’t run the numbers on the JT-A yet, but I can tell from previous analysis that there are definite limits."


title: Cessna 172

text: The model was certified by both EASA and the FAA in June 2017. It was discontinued in May 2018, due to poor sales as a result of the aircraft's high price, which was twice the price of the same aircraft as a diesel conversion. The aircraft remains available as an STC conversion from Continental Motors, Inc.


title: Cessna 172

text: In July 2010, Cessna announced it was developing an electrically powered 172 as a proof-of-concept in partnership with Bye Energy. In July 2011, Bye Energy, whose name had been changed to Beyond Aviation, announced the prototype had commenced taxi tests on 22 July 2011 and a first flight would follow soon. In 2012, the prototype, using Panacis batteries, engaged in multiple successful test flights. The R&D project was not pursued for production.


title: Cessna 172

text: On October 4, 2007, Cessna announced its plan to build a diesel-powered model, to be designated the 172 Skyhawk TD ("Turbo Diesel") starting in mid-2008. The planned engine was to be a Thielert Centurion 2.0, liquid-cooled, two-liter displacement, dual overhead cam, four-cylinder, in-line, turbo-diesel with full authority digital engine control with an output of and burning Jet-A fuel. In July 2013, the 172TD model was canceled due to Thielert's bankruptcy. The aircraft was later refined into the Turbo Skyhawk JT-A, which was certified in June 2014 and discontinued in May 2018.


title: Cessna 172

text: A variant of the 172, the T-41 Mescalero was used as a trainer with the United States Air Force and Army. In addition, the United States Border Patrol uses a fleet of 172s for aerial surveillance along the Mexico-US border.


title: Cessna 172

text: From 1972 to 2019 the Irish Air Corps used the Reims version for aerial surveillance and monitoring of cash, prisoner and explosive escorts, in addition to army cooperation and pilot training roles.


title: Baby Keem

text: Hykeem Jamaal Carter Jr. (born October 22, 2000), known professionally as Baby Keem, is an American rapper and record producer. He initially gained major recognition following the release of his single "Orange Soda", from his second mixtape "Die for My Bitch" (2019). He would later collaborate with Kanye West on the song "Praise God", which reached the top 20 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart and was certified Platinum in April 2022.


title: Baby Keem

text: His debut studio album "The Melodic Blue", was released in September 2021 by pgLang and Columbia Records. The album debuted at number five on the "Billboard" 200 chart. The single "Family Ties" with his cousin Kendrick Lamar became his second top 20 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 and received the Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance. The album also included the songs "Durag Activity" alongside Travis Scott, and "Range Brothers" with Lamar.


title: Baby Keem

text: He was born Carson, California. Prior to beginning his rapping career, Hykeem spent his early life (as early as 4 years old) in music studios watching his Aunts & Uncles "burn" CD's using the famous platform LimeWire, which was the most common source of free music listening back in the early 2000's. Just a few years later, he shared his memories of hearing Kanye West's album "808s & Heartbreak" on the radio while living in Las Vegas during the Winter of 2008. This sparked his interest for music even more, which spurred his music research the following year. Keem looked up to artists such as Ye, Kid Cudi, Lil Wayne, Eminem, 50 Cent, along with others.


title: Baby Keem

text: Keem became a small, yet prominent YouTuber who was involved in the Minecraft Survival Games mini-game scene during the early 2010's. Keem's Minecraft account was under the in game name "hykeemc" and his YouTube account went by the alias "AllMightyModz". Keem was known for being a highly skilled player on The Hive and MCGamer Network servers, amassing more than 1,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel because of his prowess. Keem would frequently hold Skype calls where his fans could play along with him. Today, Keem's channel is inactive, however, the links on his channel direct you to Keem's current SoundCloud account.


title: Baby Keem

text: Keem has both songwriting and production credits on his cousin Kendrick Lamar's project, "Black Panther: The Album", TDE member Jay Rock's "Redemption", Schoolboy Q's "Crash Talk", and the song "Nile" from Disney's "". Keem worked with record producer Cardo, on his two mixtapes, "The Sound of a Bad Habit" (2018) and "Die for My Bitch" (2019).


title: Baby Keem

text: In March 2020, Keem was featured in the visual mission statement for Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free's company, pgLang. In August 2020, it was revealed Baby Keem was included on "XXL"s 2020 Freshman Class.


title: Baby Keem

text: On September 18, 2020, Keem returned with the release of two new songs, "Hooligan", and "Sons & Critics Freestyle". He then released "No Sense", on March 5, 2021. On April 30, Keem released "Durag Activity" with Travis Scott. The song was followed by another collaboration with Keem's cousin Kendrick Lamar, titled "Family Ties", which was released on August 27, 2021. These songs are featured on Keem's debut studio album "The Melodic Blue", which was released on September 10, 2021. The album also included the single "Issues", which Keem performed on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon", a collaboration with Don Toliver titled "Cocoa", as well as previously teased tracks "Vent" and "Range Brothers". Keem also made an appearance on Kanye West's tenth studio album "Donda", on the song "Praise God", alongside Travis Scott.


title: Baby Keem

text: On April 3, 2022, Keem won a Grammy for Best Rap Performance for "Family Ties", along with Kendrick Lamar.


title: Baby Keem

text: In a 2019 interview, Keem cited American musician Kid Cudi, as a major influence: "I was inspired by Cudi's cadences and shit like that. Kid Cudi's one of my favorite artists."


title: Baby Keem

text: In a 2021 interview with "Billboard", Keem reportedly identified as part of the Mike WiLL Made-It and Metro Boomin generation, saying he derives inspiration from the two producers, as well as from Kanye West.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Ménière's disease (MD) is a disease of the inner ear that is characterized by potentially severe and incapacitating episodes of vertigo, tinnitus, hearing loss, and a feeling of fullness in the ear. Typically, only one ear is affected initially, but over time, both ears may become involved. Episodes generally last from 20 minutes to a few hours. The time between episodes varies. The hearing loss and ringing in the ears can become constant over time.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The cause of Ménière's disease is unclear, but likely involves both genetic and environmental factors. A number of theories exist for why it occurs, including constrictions in blood vessels, viral infections, and autoimmune reactions. About 10% of cases run in families. Symptoms are believed to occur as the result of increased fluid buildup in the labyrinth of the inner ear. Diagnosis is based on the symptoms and a hearing test. Other conditions that may produce similar symptoms include vestibular migraine and transient ischemic attack.


title: Ménière's disease

text: No cure is known. Attacks are often treated with medications to help with the nausea and anxiety. Measures to prevent attacks are overall poorly supported by the evidence. A low-salt diet, diuretics, and corticosteroids may be tried. Physical therapy may help with balance and counselling may help with anxiety. Injections into the ear or surgery may also be tried if other measures are not effective, but are associated with risks. The use of tympanostomy tubes, while popular, is not supported.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Ménière's disease was first identified in the early 1800s by Prosper Ménière. It affects between 0.3 and 1.9 per 1,000 people. It most often starts in people 40 to 60 years old. Females are more commonly affected than males. After 5 to 15 years of symptoms, the episodes of the world spinning sometimes stop and the person is left with loss of balance, poor hearing in the affected ear, and ringing or other sounds in the affected ear or ears.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Ménière's is characterized by recurrent episodes of vertigo, fluctuating hearing loss, and tinnitus; episodes may be preceded by a headache and a feeling of fullness in the ears. People may also experience additional symptoms related to irregular reactions of the autonomic nervous system. These symptoms are not symptoms of Meniere's disease per se, but rather are side effects resulting from failure of the organ of hearing and balance, and include nausea, vomiting, and sweating, which are typically symptoms of vertigo, and not of Ménière's. This includes a sensation of being pushed sharply to the floor from behind. Sudden falls without loss of consciousness (drop attacks) may be experienced by some people.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The cause of Ménière's disease is unclear, but likely involves both genetic and environmental factors. A number of theories exist including constrictions in blood vessels, viral infections, and autoimmune reactions.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The initial triggers of Ménière's disease are not fully understood, with a variety of potential inflammatory causes that lead to endolymphatic hydrops (EH), a distension of the endolymphatic spaces in the inner ear. EH, in turn, is strongly associated with developing MD, but not everyone with EH develops MD: "The relationship between endolymphatic hydrops and Meniere's disease is not a simple, ideal correlation."


title: Ménière's disease

text: Additionally, in fully developed MD, the balance system (vestibular system) and the hearing system (cochlea) of the inner ear are affected, but some cases occur where EH affects only one of the two systems enough to cause symptoms. The corresponding subtypes of MD are called vestibular MD, showing symptoms of vertigo, and cochlear MD, showing symptoms of hearing loss and tinnitus.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The mechanism of MD is not fully explained by EH, but fully developed EH may mechanically and chemically interfere with the sensory cells for balance and hearing, which can lead to temporary dysfunction and even to death of the sensory cells, which in turn can cause the typical symptoms of MD – vertigo, hearing loss, and tinnitus.


title: Ménière's disease

text: A common and important symptom of MD is hypersensitivity to sounds. This hypersensitivity is easily diagnosed by measuring the loudness discomfort levels (LDLs).


title: Ménière's disease

text: Symptoms of MD overlap with migraine-associated vertigo (MAV) in many ways, but when hearing loss develops in MAV, it is usually in both ears, and this is rare in MD, and hearing loss generally does not progress in MAV as it does in MD.


title: Ménière's disease

text: People who have had a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke can present with symptoms similar to MD, and in people at risk magnetic resonance imaging should be conducted to exclude TIA or stroke.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Other vestibular conditions that should be excluded include vestibular paroxysmia, recurrent unilateral vestibulopathy, vestibular schwannoma, or a tumor of the endolymphatic sac.


title: Ménière's disease

text: No cure for Ménière's disease is known, but medications, diet, physical therapy, and counseling, and some surgical approaches can be used to manage it. More than 85% of patients with Meniere's disease get better from changes in lifestyle, medical treatment, or minimally invasive surgical procedures. Those procedures include intratympanic steroid therapy, intratympanic gentamicin therapy or endolymphatic sac surgery.


title: Ménière's disease

text: During MD episodes, medications to reduce nausea are used, as are drugs to reduce the anxiety caused by vertigo. For longer-term treatment to stop progression, the evidence base is weak for all treatments. Although a causal relation between allergy and Ménière's disease is uncertain, medication to control allergies may be helpful. To assist with vertigo and balance problems, glycopyrrolate has been found to be a useful vestibular suppressant in patients with Meniere's disease.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Diuretics, such as the thiazide-like diuretic chlortalidone, are widely used to manage MD on the theory that it reduces fluid buildup (pressure) in the ear. Based on evidence from multiple but small clinical trials, diuretics appear to be useful for reducing the frequency of episodes of dizziness but do not seem to prevent hearing loss.


title: Ménière's disease

text: In cases where hearing loss and continuing severe episodes of vertigo occur, a chemical labyrinthectomy, in which a medication such as gentamicin is injected into the middle ear and kills parts of the vestibular apparatus, may be prescribed. This treatment has the risk of worsening hearing loss.


title: Ménière's disease

text: People with MD are often advised to reduce their sodium intake. Reducing salt intake, however, has not been well studied.Based on the assumption that MD is similar in nature to a migraine, some advise eliminating "migraine triggers" such as caffeine, but the evidence for this is weak. There is no high-quality evidence that changing diet by restricting salt, caffeine or alcohol improves symptoms.


title: Ménière's disease

text: While use of physical therapy early after the onset of MD is probably not useful due to the fluctuating disease course, physical therapy to help retraining of the balance system appears to be useful to reduce both subjective and objective deficits in balance over the longer term.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The psychological distress caused by the vertigo and hearing loss may worsen the condition in some people. Counseling may be useful to manage the distress, as may education and relaxation techniques.


title: Ménière's disease

text: If symptoms do not improve with typical treatment, surgery may be considered. Surgery to decompress the endolymphatic sac is one option. A systematic review in 2015 found that three methods of decompression have been used – simple decompression, insertion of a shunt, and removal of the sac. It found some evidence that all three methods were useful for reducing dizziness, but that the level of evidence was low, as trials were not blinded nor were placebo controls used.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Another 2015 review found that, on autopsy, shunts used in these surgeries often turn out to be displaced or misplaced, and recommended their use only in cases where the condition is uncontrolled and affecting both ears. A systematic review from 2014 found that in at least 75% of people, EL sac decompression was effective at controlling vertigo in the short term (>1 year of follow-up) and long term (>24 months).


title: Ménière's disease

text: An estimated 30% of people with MD have Eustachian tube dysfunction. While a 2005 review found tentative evidence of benefit from tympanostomy tubes for improvement in the unsteadiness associated with the disease, a 2014 review concluded that their use is not supported.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Destructive surgeries are irreversible and involve removing entire functionality of most, if not all, of the affected ear; as of 2013, almost no evidence existed with which to judge whether these surgeries are effective. The inner ear itself can be surgically removed via labyrinthectomy, although hearing is always completely lost in the affected ear with this operation. The surgeon can also cut the nerve to the balance portion of the inner ear in a vestibular neurectomy. The hearing is often mostly preserved; however, the surgery involves cutting open into the lining of the brain, and a hospital stay of a few days for monitoring is required.


title: Ménière's disease

text: Ménière's disease usually starts confined to one ear; it extends to both ears in about 30% of cases. People may start out with only one symptom, but in MD all three appear with time. Hearing loss usually fluctuates in the beginning stages and becomes more permanent in later stages. MD has a course of 5–15 years, and people generally end up with mild disequilibrium, tinnitus, and moderate hearing loss in one ear.


title: Ménière's disease

text: As of 2020, there has been no recent major breakthrough in the pathogenesis research of Ménière's disease.


title: Ménière's disease

text: From 3 to 11% of diagnosed dizziness in neuro-otological clinics are due to MD. The annual incidence rate is estimated to be about 15 cases per 100,000 people and the prevalence rate is about 218 per 100,000, and around 15% of people with Meniere's disease are older than 65. In around 9% of cases, a relative also had MD, indicating a genetic predisposition in some cases.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The odds of MD are greater for people of white ethnicity, with severe obesity, and women. Several conditions are often comorbid with MD, including arthritis, psoriasis, gastroesophageal reflux disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and migraine.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The condition is named after the French physician Prosper Menière, who in an 1861 article described the main symptoms and was the first to suggest a single disorder for all of the symptoms, in the combined organ of balance and hearing in the inner ear.


title: Ménière's disease

text: The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium set criteria for diagnosing MD, as well as defining two subcategories – cochlear (without vertigo) and vestibular (without deafness).


title: Ménière's disease

text: In 1985, this list changed to alter wording, such as changing "deafness" to "hearing loss associated with tinnitus, characteristically of low frequencies" and requiring more than one attack of vertigo to diagnose. Finally in 1995, the list was again altered to allow for degrees of the disease:


title: Ménière's disease

text: In 2015, the International Classification for Vestibular Disorders Committee of the Barany Society published consensus diagnostic criteria in collaboration with the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, the European Academy of Otology and Neurootology, the Japan Society for Equilibrium Research, and the Korean Balance Society.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Tonsillitis is inflammation of the tonsils in the upper part of the throat. Tonsillitis is a type of pharyngitis that typically comes on fast (rapid onset). Symptoms may include sore throat, fever, enlargement of the tonsils, trouble swallowing, and large lymph nodes around the neck. Complications include peritonsillar abscess.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Tonsillitis is most commonly caused by a viral infection and about 5% to 40% of cases are caused by a bacterial infection. When caused by the bacterium group A streptococcus, it is referred to as strep throat. Rarely bacteria such as "Neisseria gonorrhoeae", "Corynebacterium diphtheriae", or "Haemophilus influenzae" may be the cause. Typically the infection is spread between people through the air. A scoring system, such as the Centor score, may help separate possible causes. Confirmation may be by a throat swab or rapid strep test.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Treatment efforts involve improving symptoms and decreasing complications. Paracetamol (acetaminophen) and ibuprofen may be used to help with pain. If strep throat is present the antibiotic penicillin by mouth is generally recommended. In those who are allergic to penicillin, cephalosporins or macrolides may be used. In children with frequent episodes of tonsillitis, tonsillectomy modestly decreases the risk of future episodes.


title: Tonsillitis

text: About 7.5% of people have a sore throat in any three-month period and 2% of people visit a doctor for tonsillitis each year. It is most common in school-aged children and typically occurs in the colder months of autumn and winter. The majority of people recover with or without medication. In 82% of people, symptoms resolve within one week, regardless if bacteria or viruses were present. Antibiotics probably reduce the number of people experiencing sore throat or headache, but the balance between modest symptom reduction and the potential hazards of antimicrobial resistance must be recognised.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Those with tonsillitis usually experience sore throat, painful swallowing, malaise, and fever. Their tonsils – and often the back of the throat – appear red and swollen, and sometimes give off a white discharge. Some also have tender swelling of the cervical lymph nodes.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Many viral infections that cause tonsillitis will also cause cough, runny nose, hoarse voice, or blistering in the mouth or throat. Infectious mononucleosis can cause the tonsils to swell with red spots or white discharge that may extend to the tongue. This can be accompanied by fever, sore throat, cervical lymph node swelling, and enlargement of the liver and spleen. Bacterial infections that cause tonsillitis can also cause a distinct "scarletiniform" rash, vomiting, and tonsillar spots or discharge.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Viral infections cause 40 to 60% of cases of tonsillitis. Many viruses can cause inflammation of the tonsils (and the rest of throat) including adenovirus, rhinovirus, coronavirus, influenza virus, parainfluenza virus, coxsackievirus, measles virus, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, respiratory syncytial virus, and herpes simplex virus. Tonsillitis can also be part of the initial reaction to HIV infection. An estimated 1 to 10% of the cases are caused by Epstein-Barr virus.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Tonsillitis can also stem from infection with bacteria, predominantly Group A β-hemolytic streptococci (GABHS), which causes strep throat. Bacterial infection of the tonsils usually follows the initial viral infection. When tonsillitis recurs after antibiotic treatment for streptococcus bacteria, it is usually due to the same bacteria as the first time, which suggests that the antibiotic treatment was not fully effective. Less common bacterial causes include: "Streptococcus pneumoniae", "Mycoplasma pneumoniae", "Chlamydia pneumoniae", "Bordetella pertussis", "Fusobacterium" sp., "Corynebacterium diphtheriae", "Treponema pallidum", and "Neisseria gonorrhoeae".


title: Tonsillitis

text: Anaerobic bacteria have been implicated in tonsillitis, and a possible role in the acute inflammatory process is supported by several clinical and scientific observations.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Sometimes tonsillitis is caused by an infection of spirochaeta and treponema, which is called Vincent's angina or Plaut-Vincent angina.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Within the tonsils, white blood cells of the immune system destroy the viruses or bacteria by producing inflammatory cytokines like phospholipase A2, which also lead to fever. The infection may also be present in the throat and surrounding areas, causing inflammation of the pharynx.


title: Tonsillitis

text: There is no firm distinction between a sore throat that is specifically tonsillitis and a sore throat caused by inflammation in both the tonsils and also nearby tissues. An acute sore throat may be diagnosed as "tonsillitis", "pharyngitis", or "tonsillopharyngitis" (also called pharyngotonsillitis), depending upon the clinical findings.


title: Tonsillitis

text: In primary care settings, the Centor criteria are used to determine the likelihood of group A beta-hemolytic streptococcus (GABHS) infection in an acute tonsillitis and the need of antibiotics for tonsillitis treatment. However, the Centor criteria have their weaknesses in making precise diagnosis for adults. The Centor criteria are also ineffective in diagnosis for tonsillitis in children and in secondary care settings (hospitals). A modified version of the Centor criteria, which modified the original Centor criteria in 1998, is often used to aid in diagnosis. The original Centor criteria had four major criteria but the modified Centor criteria have five. The five major criteria of the modified Centor score are:


title: Tonsillitis

text: The possibility of GABHS infection increases with increasing score. The probability for getting GABHS is 2 to 23% for the score of 1, and 25 to 85% for the score of 4.


title: Tonsillitis

text: The diagnosis of GABHS tonsillitis can be confirmed by culture of samples obtained by swabbing the throat and plating them on blood agar medium. This small percentage of false-negative results are part of the characteristics of the tests used but are also possible if the person has received antibiotics prior to testing. Identification requires 24 to 48 hours by culture but rapid screening tests (10–60 minutes), which have a sensitivity of 85–90%, are available. In 40% of the people without any symptoms, the throat culture can be positive. Therefore, throat culture is not routinely used in clinical practice for the detection of GABHS.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Bacterial culture may need to be performed in cases of a negative rapid streptococcal test. An increase in antistreptolysin O (ASO) streptococcal antibody titer following the acute infection can provide retrospective evidence of GABHS infection and is considered definitive proof of GABHS infection, but not necessarily of the tonsils.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Epstein Barr virus serology can be tested for those who may have infectious mononucleosis with a typical lymphocyte count in full blood count result. Blood investigations are only required for those with hospital admission requiring intravenous antibiotics. Increased values of secreted phospholipase A2 and altered fatty acid metabolism observed in people with tonsillitis may have diagnostic utility.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Nasoendoscopy can be used for those with severe neck pain and inability to swallow any fluids to rule out masked epiglotitis and supraglotitis. Routine nasoendscopy is not recommended for children.


title: Tonsillitis

text: If the tonsillitis is caused by group A streptococcus, then antibiotics are useful, with penicillin or amoxicillin being primary choices. Cephalosporins and macrolides are considered good alternatives to penicillin in the acute care setting. A macrolide, such as azithromycin or erythromycin, is used for people allergic to penicillin. If penicillin therapy fails, bacterial tonsillitis may respond to treatment effective against beta-lactamase producing bacteria such as clindamycin or amoxicillin-clavulanate. Aerobic and anaerobic beta lactamase producing bacteria that reside in the tonsillar tissues can "shield" group A streptococcus from penicillins. There is no significant difference in efficacy of various groups of antibiotics for treating tonsillitis. Intravenous antibiotics can be for those who are hospitalized with inability to swallow and presented with complications. Oral antibiotics can be resumed immediately if the person is clinically improved and able to swallow orally. Antibiotic treatment is usually taken for seven to ten days.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Paracetamol and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) can be used to treat throat pain in children and adults. Codeine is avoided in children under 12 years of age to treat throat pain or following tonsilectomy. NSAIDs (such as ibuprofen) and opioids (such as codeine and tramadol) are equally effective at relieving pain, however, precautions should be taken with these pain medications. NSAIDs can cause peptic ulcer disease and kidney damage. Opioids can cause respiratory depression in those who are vulnerable. Anaesthetic mouthwash can also be used for symptomatic relief.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Corticosteroids reduce tonsillitis pain and improve symptoms in 24 to 48 hours. Oral corticosteroids are recommended unless the person is unable to swallow medications.


title: Tonsillitis

text: When tonsillitis recurs frequently, often arbitrarily defined as at least five episodes of tonsillitis in a year, or when the palatine tonsils become so swollen that swallowing is difficult as well as painful, a tonsillectomy can be performed to surgically remove the tonsils.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Since the advent of penicillin in the 1940s, a major preoccupation in the treatment of streptococcal tonsillitis has been the prevention of rheumatic fever, and its major effects on the nervous system and heart.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Complications may rarely include dehydration and kidney failure due to difficulty swallowing, blocked airways due to inflammation, and pharyngitis due to the spread of infection.


title: Tonsillitis

text: An abscess may develop lateral to the tonsil during an infection, typically several days after the onset of tonsillitis. This is termed a peritonsillar abscess (or quinsy).


title: Tonsillitis

text: Rarely, the infection may spread beyond the tonsil resulting in inflammation and infection of the internal jugular vein giving rise to a spreading infectious thrombophlebitis (Lemierre's syndrome).


title: Tonsillitis

text: In strep throat, diseases like post-streptococcal glomerulonephritis can occur. These complications are extremely rare in developed nations but remain a significant problem in poorer nations.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Tonsillitis occurs throughout the world, without racial or ethnic differences. Most children have tonsillitis at least once during their childhood, although it rarely occurs before the age of two. It most typically occurs between the ages of four and five; bacterial infections most typically occur at a later age.


title: Tonsillitis

text: Recurrent tonsillitis can interfere with vocal function and the ability to perform among people who use their voices professionally.


title: William II of England

text: William II (;  – 2 August 1100) was King of England from 26 September 1087 until his death in 1100, with powers over Normandy and influence in Scotland. He was less successful in extending control into Wales. The third son of William the Conqueror, he is commonly referred to as William Rufus ( being Latin for "the Red"), perhaps because of his ruddy appearance or, more likely, due to having red hair as a child that grew out in later life.


title: William II of England

text: William was a figure of complex temperament, capable of both bellicosity and flamboyance. He did not marry nor have children, which – along with contemporary accounts – has led historians to speculate on homosexuality or bisexuality. He died after being hit by an arrow while hunting, under circumstances that remain unclear. Circumstantial evidence in the behaviour of those around him raises strong, but unproven, suspicions of murder. His younger brother Henry I hurriedly succeeded him as king.


title: William II of England

text: Historian Frank Barlow observed William was "[a] rumbustious, devil-may-care soldier, without natural dignity or social graces, with no cultivated tastes and little show of conventional religious piety or morality – indeed, according to his critics, addicted to every kind of vice, particularly lust and especially sodomy." On the other hand, he was a wise ruler and victorious general. Barlow noted, "His chivalrous virtues and achievements were all too obvious. He had maintained good order and satisfactory justice in England and restored good peace to Normandy. He had extended Anglo-Norman rule in Wales, brought Scotland firmly under his lordship, recovered Maine, and kept up the pressure on the Vexin."


title: William II of England

text: William's exact date of birth is not known, but it was some time between the years 1056 and 1060. He was the third of four sons born to William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders, the eldest being Robert Curthose, the second Richard, and the youngest Henry. Richard died around 1075 while hunting in the New Forest. William succeeded to the throne of England on his father's death in 1087, but Robert inherited Normandy.


title: William II of England

text: William had five or six sisters. The existence of sisters Adeliza and Matilda is not absolutely certain, but four sisters are more securely attested:


title: William II of England

text: Records indicate strained relations between the three surviving sons of William I. William's contemporary, chronicler Orderic Vitalis, wrote about an incident that took place at L'Aigle in Normandy in 1077 or 1078: William and Henry, having grown bored with casting dice, decided to make mischief by emptying a chamber pot onto their brother Robert from an upper gallery, thus infuriating and shaming him. A brawl broke out, and their father had to intercede to restore order.


title: William II of England

text: According to William of Malmesbury, writing in the 12th century, William Rufus was "well set; his complexion florid, his hair yellow; of open countenance; different coloured eyes, varying with certain glittering specks; of astonishing strength, though not very tall, and his belly rather projecting."


title: William II of England

text: The division of William the Conqueror's lands into two parts presented a dilemma for those nobles who held land on both sides of the English Channel. Since the younger William and his brother Robert were natural rivals, these nobles worried that they could not hope to please both of their lords, and thus ran the risk of losing the favour of one ruler or the other, or both. The only solution, as they saw it, was to unite England and Normandy once more under one ruler. The pursuit of this aim led them to revolt against William in favour of Robert in the Rebellion of 1088, under the leadership of the powerful Bishop Odo of Bayeux, who was a half-brother of William the Conqueror. As Robert failed to appear in England to rally his supporters, William won the support of the English with silver and promises of better government, and defeated the rebellion, thus securing his authority. In 1091 he invaded Normandy, crushing Robert's forces and forcing him to cede a portion of his lands. The two made up their differences and William agreed to help Robert recover lands lost to France, notably Maine. This plan was later abandoned, but William continued to pursue a ferociously warlike defence of his French possessions and interests to the end of his life, exemplified by his response to the attempt by Elias de la Flèche, Count of Maine, to take Le Mans in 1099.


title: William II of England

text: William Rufus was thus secure in his kingdom. As in Normandy, his bishops and abbots were bound to him by feudal obligations, and his right of investiture in the Norman tradition prevailed within his kingdom during the age of the Investiture Controversy that brought excommunication upon the Salian Emperor Henry IV. The king's personal power, through an effective and loyal chancery, penetrated to the local level to an extent unmatched in France. The king's administration and law unified the realm, rendering him relatively impervious to papal condemnation. In 1097 he commenced the original Westminster Hall, built "to impress his subjects with the power and majesty of his authority".


title: William II of England

text: Less than two years after becoming king, William II lost his father's adviser and confidant, the Italian-Norman Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury. After Lanfranc's death in 1089, the king delayed appointing a new archbishop for many years, appropriating ecclesiastical revenues in the interim. In panic, owing to serious illness in 1093, William nominated as archbishop another Norman-Italian, Anselm – considered the greatest theologian of his generation – but this led to a long period of animosity between Church and State, Anselm being a stronger supporter of the Gregorian reforms in the Church than Lanfranc. William and Anselm disagreed on a range of ecclesiastical issues, in the course of which the king declared of Anselm that, "Yesterday I hated him with great hatred, today I hate him with yet greater hatred and he can be certain that tomorrow and thereafter I shall hate him continually with ever fiercer and more bitter hatred." The English clergy, beholden to the king for their preferments and livings, were unable to support Anselm publicly. In 1095 William called a council at Rockingham to bring Anselm to heel, but the archbishop remained firm. In October 1097, Anselm went into exile, taking his case to the Pope. The diplomatic and flexible Urban II, a new pope, was involved in a major conflict with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV, who supported Antipope Clement III. Reluctant to make another enemy, Urban came to a concordat with William, whereby William recognised Urban as pope, and Urban gave sanction to the Anglo-Norman ecclesiastical "status quo". Anselm remained in exile, and William was able to claim the revenues of the archbishop of Canterbury to the end of his reign.


title: William II of England

text: However, this conflict was symptomatic of medieval English politics, as exemplified by the murder of Thomas Becket during the reign of the later Plantagenet king Henry II (his great-nephew through his brother Henry) and Henry VIII's actions centuries later, and as such should not be seen as a defect of William's reign in particular. Of course, contemporary churchmen were themselves not above engaging in such politics: it is reported that, when Archbishop Lanfranc suggested to William I that he imprison the rebellious bishop Odo of Bayeux, he exclaimed "What! He is a clergyman." Lanfranc retorted that "You will not seize the bishop of Bayeux, but confine the earl of Kent." (Odo held both titles.)


title: William II of England

text: While there are complaints of contemporaries regarding William's personal behaviour, he was instrumental in assisting the foundation of Bermondsey Abbey, endowing it with the manor of Bermondsey, and it is reported that his "customary oath" was "By the Face at Lucca!" It seems reasonable to suppose that such details are indicative of William's personal beliefs.


title: William II of England

text: William Rufus inherited the Anglo-Norman settlement detailed in the Domesday Book of 1086, a survey undertaken at his father's command, essentially for the purposes of taxation, which was an example of the control of the English monarchy. If he was less effective than his father in containing the Norman lords' propensity for rebellion and violence, through charisma or political skills, he was forceful in overcoming the consequences. In 1095, Robert de Mowbray, the earl of Northumbria, refused to attend the "Curia Regis", the thrice-annual court where the King announced his governmental decisions to the great lords. William led an army against Robert and defeated him. Robert was dispossessed and imprisoned, and another noble, William of Eu, accused of treachery, was blinded and castrated.


title: William II of England

text: In external affairs, William had some successes. In 1091 he repulsed an invasion by King Malcolm III of Scotland, forcing Malcolm to pay homage. In 1092 he built Carlisle Castle, taking control of Cumberland and Westmorland, which had previously been claimed by the Scots. Subsequently, the two kings quarrelled over Malcolm's possessions in England, and Malcolm again invaded, ravaging Northumbria. At the Battle of Alnwick, on 13 November 1093, Malcolm was ambushed by Norman forces led by Robert de Mowbray. Malcolm and his son Edward were killed and Malcolm's brother Donald seized the throne. William supported Malcolm's son Duncan II, who held power for a short time, and then another of Malcolm's sons, Edgar. Edgar conquered Lothian in 1094 and eventually removed Donald in 1097 with William's aid in a campaign led by Edgar Ætheling. The new king recognised William's authority over Lothian and attended William's court.


title: William II of England

text: William made two forays into Wales in 1097. Nothing decisive was achieved, but a series of castles was constructed as a marchland defensive barrier.


title: William II of England

text: In 1096, William's brother Robert Curthose joined the First Crusade. He needed money to fund this venture and pledged his Duchy of Normandy to William in return for a payment of 10,000 marks, which equates to about a quarter of William's annual revenue. In a display of the effectiveness of English taxation, William raised the money by levying a special, heavy, and much-resented tax upon the whole of England. He then ruled Normandy as regent in Robert's absence. Robert did not return until September 1100, one month after William's death.


title: William II of England

text: As regent in Normandy, William campaigned in France from 1097 to 1099. He secured northern Maine but failed to seize the French-controlled part of the Vexin region. According to William of Malmesbury he was planning to invade the Duchy of Aquitaine at the time of his death.


title: William II of England

text: William went hunting on 2 August 1100 in the New Forest, probably near Brockenhurst, and was killed by an arrow through the lung, although the circumstances remain unclear. The earliest statement of the event was in the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", which noted that the king was "shot by an arrow by one of his own men." Later chroniclers added the name of the killer, a nobleman named Walter Tirel, although the description of events was later embroidered with other details that may or may not be true. The first mention of any location more exact than the New Forest comes from John Leland, who wrote in 1530 that William died at Thorougham, a placename that is no longer used, but that probably referred to a location on what is now Park Farm on the Beaulieu estates. A memorial stone in the grounds of Beaulieu Abbey, Hampshire, states "Remember King William Rufus who died in these parts then known as Truham whilst hunting on 2nd August 1100".


title: William II of England

text: The king's body was abandoned by the nobles at the place where he fell. An arrow maker, Eli Parratt, later found the body. William's younger brother, Henry, hastened to Winchester to secure the royal treasury, then to London, where he was crowned within days, before either archbishop could arrive. William of Malmesbury, in his account of William's death, stated that the body was taken to Winchester Cathedral by a few countrymen, including Eli who discovered the body.


title: William II of England

text: To the chroniclers, men of the Church, such an "act of God" was a just end for a wicked king, and was regarded as a fitting demise for a ruler who came into conflict with the religious orders to which they belonged. Over the following centuries, the obvious suggestion that one of William's enemies had a hand in this event has repeatedly been made: chroniclers of the time point out themselves that Tirel was renowned as a keen bowman, and thus was unlikely to have loosed such an impetuous shot. Moreover, Bartlett says that rivalry between brothers was the pattern of political conflict in this period. William's brother Henry was among the hunting party that day and succeeded him as king.


title: William II of England

text: Modern scholars have reopened the question, and some have found the assassination theory credible or compelling, but the theory is not universally accepted. Barlow says that accidents were common and there is not enough hard evidence to prove murder. Bartlett notes that hunting was dangerous. Poole says the facts "look ugly" and "seem to suggest a plot." John Gillingham points out that if Henry had planned to murder William it would have been in his interest to wait until a later time. It looked as though there would soon be a war between William and his brother Robert, which would result in one of them being eliminated, thus opening the way for Henry to acquire both England and Normandy through a single assassination. Tirel fled immediately. Henry had the most to gain by his brother's death. Indeed, Henry's actions "seem to be premeditated: wholly disregarding his dead brother, he rode straight for Winchester, seized the treasury (always the first act of a usurping king), and the next day had himself elected."


title: William II of England

text: William's remains are in Winchester Cathedral, scattered among royal mortuary chests positioned on the presbytery screen, flanking the choir. His skull appears to be missing, but some long bones may remain.


title: William II of England

text: A stone known as the "Rufus Stone", close to the A31 near the village of Minstead (), is claimed to mark the spot where William fell. The claim that this is the location of his death appears to date from no earlier than a 17th-century visit by Charles II to the forest. At the time the most popular account of William's death involved the fatal arrow deflecting off a tree, and Charles appears to have been shown a suitable tree. Letters in "The Gentleman's Magazine" reported that the tree was cut down and burned during the 18th century. Later in that century the Rufus Stone was set up. Originally it was around tall with a stone ball on top. King George III visited the stone in 1789, along with Queen Charlotte, and an inscription was added to the stone to commemorate the visit. It was protected with a cast iron cover in 1841 after repeated vandalism.


title: William II of England

text: Here stood the Oak Tree, on which an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrrell at a Stag, glanced and struck King William the second, surnamed Rufus, on the breast, of which he instantly died, on the second day of August, anno 1100.


title: William II of England

text: That the spot where an Event so Memorable might not hereafter be forgotten; the enclosed stone was set up by John Lord Delaware who had seen the Tree growing in this place. This Stone having been much mutilated, and the inscriptions on each of its three sides defaced, this more Durable Memorial, with the original inscriptions, was erected in the year 1841, by Wm [William] Sturges Bourne Warden.


title: William II of England

text: King William the second, surnamed Rufus being slain, as before related, was laid in a cart, belonging to one Purkis, and drawn from hence, to Winchester, and buried in the Cathedral Church, of that City.


title: William II of England

text: William was an effective soldier, but he was a ruthless ruler and, it seems, was little liked by those he governed. According to the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle", he was "hated by almost all his people and abhorrent to God." Chroniclers tended to take a dim view of William's reign, arguably on account of his long and difficult struggles with the Church: these chroniclers were themselves generally clerics, and so might be expected to report him somewhat negatively. His chief minister was Ranulf Flambard, whom he appointed Bishop of Durham in 1099: this was a political appointment, to a see that was also a great fiefdom. The particulars of the king's relationship with the people of England are not credibly documented. Contemporaries of William, as well as those writing after his death, roundly denounced him for presiding over what these dissenters considered a dissolute court. In keeping with the tradition of Norman leaders, William scorned the English and the English culture.


title: William II of England

text: Contemporaries of William raised concerns about a court dominated by homosexuality and effeminacy, although this appears to have had more to do with their luxurious attire than with sexual practices.


title: William II of England

text: Citing the traditions of Wilton Abbey in the 1140s, Herman of Tournai wrote that the abbess had ordered the Scottish princess Edith (later Matilda, wife of Henry I) to take the veil in order to protect her from the lust of William Rufus, which angered Edith's father because of the effect it might have on her prospects of marriage.


title: William II of England

text: The historian Emma Mason has noted that while during his reign William himself was never openly accused of homosexuality, in the decades after his death numerous medieval writers spoke of this and a few began to describe him as a "sodomite". Modern historians cannot state with certainty whether William was homosexual or not; however, he never took a wife or a mistress, or fathered any children. As a bachelor king without an heir, William would have been pressed to take a wife and would have had numerous proposals for marriage. That he never accepted any of these proposals nor had any relations with women may show that he either had no desire for women, or he may have taken a vow of chastity or celibacy.


title: William II of England

text: Barlow said that the Welsh chronicles claim that Henry was able to succeed to the throne because his brother had made use of concubines and thus died childless, although no illegitimate offspring are named. Barlow also allows that William may have been sterile. Noting that no "favourites" were identified, and that William's "baronial friends and companions were mostly married men", despite having concluded that the chroniclers were "hostile and biased witnesses", Barlow considers that "there seems no reason why they should have invented this particular charge" (of homosexuality) and states that, in his opinion, "On the whole the evidence points to the king's bisexuality".


title: David Hume

text: David Hume (; born David Home; 7 May 1711 NS – 25 August 1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist, who is best known today for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism. Beginning with "A Treatise of Human Nature" (1739–40), Hume strove to create a naturalistic science of man that examined the psychological basis of human nature. Hume argued against the existence of innate ideas, positing that all human knowledge derives solely from experience. This places him with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley as an Empiricist.


title: David Hume

text: Hume argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified rationally; instead, they result from custom and mental habit. We never actually perceive that one event causes another but only experience the "constant conjunction" of events. This problem of induction means that to draw any causal inferences from past experience, it is necessary to presuppose that the future will resemble the past, a presupposition which cannot itself be grounded in prior experience.


title: David Hume

text: An opponent of philosophical rationalists, Hume held that passions rather than reason govern human behaviour, famously proclaiming that "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions." Hume was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principle. He maintained an early commitment to naturalistic explanations of moral phenomena and is usually taken to have first clearly expounded the is–ought problem, or the idea that a statement of fact alone can never give rise to a normative conclusion of what "ought" to be done.


title: David Hume

text: Hume also denied that humans have an actual conception of the self, positing that we experience only a bundle of sensations, and that the self is nothing more than this bundle of causally-connected perceptions. Hume's compatibilist theory of free will takes causal determinism as fully compatible with human freedom. His views on philosophy of religion, including his rejection of miracles and the argument from design for God's existence, were especially controversial for their time.


title: David Hume

text: Hume influenced utilitarianism, logical positivism, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology, and many other fields and thinkers. Immanuel Kant credited Hume as the inspiration who had awakened him from his "dogmatic slumbers."


title: David Hume

text: Hume was born on 26 April 1711 (Old Style), as David Home, in a tenement on the north side of Edinburgh's Lawnmarket. He was the second of two sons born to Catherine Home (née Falconer), daughter of Sir David Falconer of Newton and wife Mary Falconer (née Norvell), and Joseph Home of Chirnside in the County of Berwick, an advocate of Ninewells. Joseph died just after David's second birthday. Catherine, who never remarried, raised the two brothers and their sister on her own.


title: David Hume

text: 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 and, as a younger son, he had little patrimony to live on.


title: David Hume

text: Hume attended the University of Edinburgh at an unusually early ageeither 12 or possibly as young as 10at a time when 14 was the typical age. Initially, Hume considered a career in law, because of his family. However, in his words, he came to have: …an insurmountable aversion to everything but the pursuits of Philosophy and general Learning; and while [my family] fanceyed I was poring over Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil were the Authors which I was secretly devouring.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". He did not graduate.


title: David Hume

text: Aged 18 or so, 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". As he did not recount what this scene exactly was, commentators have offered a variety of speculations. One prominent interpretation among contemporary Humean scholarship is that this new "scene of thought" was Hume's realisation that Francis Hutcheson's theory of "moral sense" could be applied to the understanding of morality as well.


title: David Hume

text: 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 coldnesswhich he attributed to a "Laziness of Temper"that lasted about nine months. Later, some scurvy spots broke out on his fingers, persuading Hume's physician to diagnose Hume as suffering from the "Disease of the Learned".


title: David Hume

text: Hume wrote that he "went under a Course of Bitters and Anti-Hysteric Pills", taken along with a pint of claret every day. He also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning. His health improved somewhat, but in 1731 he was afflicted with a ravenous appetite and palpitations of the heart. After eating well for a time, he went from being "tall, lean and raw-bon'd" to being "sturdy, robust [and] healthful-like." Indeed, Hume would become well known for being obese and having a fondness for good port and cheese.


title: David Hume

text: Although having noble ancestry, at 25 years of age, Hume had no source of income and no learned profession. As was common at his time, he became a merchant's assistant, despite having to leave his native Scotland. He travelled via Bristol to La Flèche in Anjou, France. There he had frequent discourse with the Jesuits of the College of La Flèche.


title: David Hume

text: Hume was derailed in his attempts to start a university career by protests over his alleged "atheism", also lamenting that his literary debut, "A Treatise of Human Nature", "fell dead-born from the press." However, he found literary success in his lifetime as an essayist, and a career as a librarian at the University of Edinburgh. His tenure there, and the access to research materials it provided, resulted in Hume's writing the massive six-volume "The History of England", which became a bestseller and the standard history of England in its day. For over 60 years, Hume was the dominant interpreter of English history. He described his "love for literary fame" as his "ruling passion" and judged his two late works, the so-called "first" and "second" enquiries, "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals", as his greatest literary and philosophical achievements. He would ask of his contemporaries to judge him on the merits of the later texts alone, rather than on the more radical formulations of his early, youthful work, dismissing his philosophical debut as juvenilia: "A work which the Author had projected before he left College." Despite Hume's protestations, a consensus exists today that his most important arguments and philosophically distinctive doctrines are found in the original form they take in the "Treatise". Though he was only 23 years old when starting this work, it is now regarded as one of the most important in the history of Western philosophy.


title: David Hume

text: Hume worked for four years on his first major work, "A Treatise of Human Nature", subtitled "Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects", completing it in 1738 at the age of 28. Although many scholars today consider the "Treatise" to be Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in Western philosophy, critics in Great Britain at the time described it as "abstract and unintelligible". As Hume had spent most of his savings during those four years, he resolved "to make a very rigid frugality supply [his] deficiency of fortune, to maintain unimpaired my independency, and to regard every object as contemptible except the improvements of my talents in literature".


title: David Hume

text: Despite the disappointment, Hume later wrote: "Being naturally of a cheerful and sanguine temper, I soon recovered from the blow and prosecuted with great ardour my studies in the country." There, in an attempt to make his larger work better known and more intelligible, he published the "An Abstract of a Book lately Published" as a summary of the main doctrines of the "Treatise", without revealing its authorship. Although there has been some academic speculation as to who actually wrote this pamphlet, it is generally regarded as Hume's creation.


title: David Hume

text: After the publication of "Essays Moral and Political" in 1741included in the later edition as "Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary"Hume applied for the Chair of Pneumatics and Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. However, the position was given to William Cleghorn after Edinburgh ministers petitioned the town council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an atheist.


title: David Hume

text: In 1745, during the Jacobite risings, Hume tutored the Marquess of Annandale (1720–92), an engagement that ended in disarray after about a year. Hume then started his great historical work, "The History of England", taking fifteen years and running to over a million words. During this time he was also involved with the Canongate Theatre through his friend John Home, a preacher.


title: David Hume

text: In this context, he associated with Lord Monboddo and other thinkers of the Scottish Enlightenment in Edinburgh. From 1746, Hume served for three years as secretary to General James St Clair, who was envoy to the courts of Turin and Vienna. At that time Hume also wrote "Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding", later published as "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding". Often called the "First Enquiry", it proved little more successful than the "Treatise", perhaps because of the publication of his short autobiography "My Own Life", which "made friends difficult for the first Enquiry". By the end of this period Hume had attained his well-known corpulent stature; "the good table of the General and the prolonged inactive life had done their work", leaving him "a man of tremendous bulk".


title: David Hume

text: In 1749 he went to live with his brother in the countryside, although he continued to associate with the aforementioned Scottish Enlightenment figures.


title: David Hume

text: Hume's religious views were often suspect and, in the 1750s, it was necessary for his friends to avert a trial against him on the charge of heresy, specifically in an ecclesiastical court. However, he "would not have come and could not be forced to attend if he said he was not a member of the Established Church". Hume failed to gain the chair of philosophy at the University of Glasgow due to his religious views. By this time, he had published the "Philosophical Essays", which were decidedly anti-religious. Even Adam Smith, his personal friend who had vacated the Glasgow philosophy chair, was against his appointment out of concern that public opinion would be against it. In 1761 all his works were banned on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.


title: David Hume

text: Hume returned to Edinburgh in 1751. In the following year, the Faculty of Advocates hired him to be their Librarian, a job in which he would receive little to no pay, but which nonetheless gave him "the command of a large library". This resource enabled him to continue historical research for "The History of England". Hume's volume of "Political Discourses", written in 1749 and published by Kincaid & Donaldson in 1752, was the only work he considered successful on first publication.


title: David Hume

text: Eventually, with the publication of his six-volume "The History of England" between 1754 and 1762, Hume achieved the fame that he coveted. The volumes traced events from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688, and was a bestseller in its day. Hume was also a longtime friend of bookseller Andrew Millar, who sold Hume's "History" (after acquiring the rights from Scottish bookseller Gavin Hamilton), although the relationship was sometimes complicated. Letters between them illuminate both men's interest in the success of the "History". In 1762 Hume moved from Jack's Land on the Canongate to James Court on the Lawnmarket. He sold the house to James Boswell in 1766.


title: David Hume

text: From 1763 to 1765, Hume was invited to attend Lord Hertford in Paris, where he became secretary to the British embassy. Hume was well received in Paris, and while there he met with Isaac de Pinto.


title: David Hume

text: In 1765, Hume served as British Chargé d'affaires, writing "despatches to the British Secretary of State". He wrote of his Paris life, "I really wish often for the plain roughness of The Poker Club of Edinburgh…to correct and qualify so much lusciousness." In 1766, upon returning to Britain, Hume encouraged his patron Lord Hertford to invest in a number of slave plantations, acquired by George Colebrooke and others in the Windward Islands. In June 1766 Hume facilitated the purchase of the slave plantation by writing to Victor-Thérèse Charpentier, marquis d'Ennery, the French governor of Martinique, on behalf of his friend, John Stewart, a wine merchant and lent Stewart £400 earlier in the same year. According to Dr. Felix Waldmann, a former Hume Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, Hume's "puckish scepticism about the existence of religious miracles played a significant part in defining the critical outlook which underpins the practice of modern science. But his views served to reinforce the institution of racialised slavery in the later 18th century."


title: David Hume

text: In 1766, Hume left Paris to accompany Jean-Jacques Rousseau to England. Once there, he and Rousseau fell out, leaving Hume sufficiently worried about the damage to his reputation from the quarrel with Rousseau. So much so, that Hume would author an account of the dispute, titling it ""A concise and genuine account of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau"".


title: David Hume

text: In 1767, Hume was appointed Under Secretary of State for the Northern Department. Here, he wrote that he was given "all the secrets of the Kingdom". In 1769 he returned to James' Court in Edinburgh, where he would live from 1771 until his death in 1776.


title: David Hume

text: Hume's nephew and namesake, David Hume of Ninewells (1757–1838), was a co-founder of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1783. He was a Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University and rose to be Principal Clerk of Session in the Scottish High Court and Baron of the Exchequer. He is buried with his uncle in Old Calton Cemetery.


title: David Hume

text: In the last year of his life, Hume wrote an extremely brief autobiographical essay titled "My Own Life", summing up his entire life in "fewer than 5 pages"; it contains many interesting judgments that have been of enduring interest to subsequent readers of Hume. Donald Seibert (1984), a scholar of 18th-century literature, judged it a "remarkable autobiography, even though it may lack the usual attractions of that genre. Anyone hankering for startling revelations or amusing anecdotes had better look elsewhere."


title: David Hume

text: Despite condemning vanity as a dangerous passion, in his autobiography Hume confesses his belief that the "love of literary fame" had served as his "ruling passion" in life, and claims that this desire "never soured my temper, notwithstanding my frequent disappointments". One such disappointment Hume discusses in this account is in the initial literary reception of the "Treatise", which he claims to have overcome by means of the success of the "Essays": "the work was favourably received, and soon made me entirely forget my former disappointment". Hume, in his own retrospective judgment, argues that his philosophical debut's apparent failure "had proceeded more from the manner than the matter". He thus suggests that "I had been guilty of a very usual indiscretion, in going to the press too early."


title: David Hume

text: Hume also provides an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works: that "my Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals; which, in my own opinion (who ought not to judge on that subject) is of all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomparably the best." He also wrote of his social relations: "My company was not unacceptable to the young and careless, as well as to the studious and literary", noting of his complex relation to religion, as well as to the state, that "though I wantonly exposed myself to the rage of both civil and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed in my behalf of their wonted fury". He goes on to profess of his character: "My friends never had occasion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character and conduct." Hume concludes the essay with a frank admission:I cannot say there is no vanity in making this funeral oration of myself, but I hope it is not a misplaced one; and this is a matter of fact which is easily cleared and ascertained.


title: David Hume

text: Diarist and biographer James Boswell saw Hume a few weeks before his death from a form of abdominal cancer. Hume told him that he sincerely believed it a "most unreasonable fancy" that there might be life after death. Hume asked that his body be interred in a "simple Roman tomb", requesting in his will that it be inscribed only with his name and the year of his birth and death, "leaving it to Posterity to add the Rest".


title: David Hume

text: David Hume died at the southwest corner of St. Andrew's Square in Edinburgh's New Town, at what is now 21 Saint David Street. A popular story, consistent with some historical evidence, suggests that the street was named after Hume.


title: David Hume

text: His tomb stands, as he wished it, on the southwestern slope of Calton Hill, in the Old Calton Cemetery. Adam Smith later recounted Hume's amusing speculation that he might ask Charon, Hades' ferryman, to allow him a few more years of life in order to see "the downfall of some of the prevailing systems of superstition". The ferryman replied, "You loitering rogue, that will not happen these many hundred years.… Get into the boat this instant."


title: David Hume

text: "A Treatise of Human Nature" begins with the introduction: "'Tis evident, that all the sciences have a relation, more or less, to human nature.… Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy, and Natural Religion, are in some measure dependent on the science of Man." The science of man, as Hume explains, is the "only solid foundation for the other sciences" and that the method for this science requires both experience and observation as the foundations of a logical argument. In regards to this, philosophical historian Frederick Copleston (1999) suggests that it was Hume's aim to apply to the science of man the method of experimental philosophy (the term that was current at the time to imply natural philosophy), and that "Hume's plan is to extend to philosophy in general the methodological limitations of Newtonian physics."


title: David Hume

text: Until recently, Hume was seen as a forerunner of logical positivism, a form of anti-metaphysical empiricism. According to the logical positivists (in summary of their verification principle), unless a statement could be verified by experience, or else was true or false by definition (i.e. either tautological or contradictory), then it was meaningless. Hume, on this view, was a proto-positivist, who, in his philosophical writings, attempted to demonstrate the ways in which ordinary propositions about objects, causal relations, the self, and so on, are semantically equivalent to propositions about one's experiences.


title: David Hume

text: Many commentators have since rejected this understanding of Humean empiricism, stressing an epistemological (rather than a semantic) reading of his project. According to this opposing view, Hume's empiricism consisted in the idea that it is our knowledge, and not our ability to conceive, that is restricted to what can be experienced. Hume thought that we can form beliefs about that which extends beyond any possible experience, through the operation of faculties such as custom and the imagination, but he was sceptical about claims to knowledge on this basis.


title: David Hume

text: A central doctrine of Hume's philosophy, stated in the very first lines of the "Treatise of Human Nature", is that the mind consists of perceptions, or the mental objects which are present to it, and which divide into two categories: "All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call and ." Hume believed that it would "not be very necessary to employ many words in explaining this distinction", which commentators have generally taken to mean the distinction between "feeling" and "thinking". Controversially, Hume, in some sense, may regard the distinction as a matter of degree, as he takes "impressions" to be distinguished from ideas on the basis of their force, liveliness, and vivacitywhat Henry E. Allison (2008) calls the "FLV criterion." "Ideas" are therefore "faint" impressions. For example, experiencing the painful sensation of touching a hot pan's handle is more forceful than simply thinking about touching a hot pan. According to Hume, "impressions" are meant to be the original form of all our ideas. From this, Don Garrett (2002) has coined the term "copy principle," referring to Hume's doctrine that all ideas are ultimately copied from some original impression, whether it be a passion or sensation, from which they derive.


title: David Hume

text: After establishing the forcefulness of impressions and ideas, these two categories are further broken down into "simple" and "complex": "simple perceptions or impressions and ideas are such as admit of no distinction nor separation", whereas "the complex are the contrary to these, and may be distinguished into parts". When looking at an apple, a person experiences a variety of colour-sensationswhat Hume notes as a complex impression. Similarly, a person experiences a variety of taste-sensations, tactile-sensations, and smell-sensations when biting into an apple, with the overall sensationagain, a complex impression. Thinking about an apple allows a person to form complex ideas, which are made of similar parts as the complex impressions they were developed from, but which are also less forceful. Hume believes that complex perceptions can be broken down into smaller and smaller parts until perceptions are reached that have no parts of their own, and these perceptions are thus referred to as simple.


title: David Hume

text: Regardless of how boundless it may seem, a person's imagination is confined to the mind's ability to recombine the information it has already acquired from the body's sensory experience (the ideas that have been derived from impressions). In addition, "as our imagination takes our most basic ideas and leads us to form new ones, it is directed by three principles of association, namely, resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect":


title: David Hume

text: Hume elaborates more on the last principle, explaining that, when somebody observes that one object or event consistently produces the same object or event, that results in "an expectation that a particular event (a 'cause') will be followed by another event (an 'effect') previously and constantly associated with it". Hume calls this principle "custom", or "habit", saying that "custom...renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past". However, even though custom can serve as a guide in life, it still only represents an expectation. In other words: Experience cannot establish a necessary connection between cause and effect, because we can imagine without contradiction a case where the cause does not produce its usual effect…the reason why we mistakenly infer that there is something in the cause that necessarily produces its effect is because our past experiences have habituated us to think in this way. Continuing this idea, Hume argues that "only in the pure realm of ideas, logic, and mathematics, not contingent on the direct sense awareness of reality, [can] causation safely…be applied—all other sciences are reduced to probability". He uses this scepticism to reject metaphysics and many theological views on the basis that they are not grounded in fact and observations, and are therefore beyond the reach of human understanding.


title: David Hume

text: The cornerstone of Hume's epistemology is the problem of induction. This may be the area of Hume's thought where his scepticism about human powers of reason is most pronounced. The problem revolves around the plausibility of inductive reasoning, that is, reasoning from the observed behaviour of objects to their behaviour when unobserved. As Hume wrote, induction concerns how things behave when they go "beyond the present testimony of the senses, or the records of our memory". Hume argues that we tend to believe that things behave in a regular manner, meaning that patterns in the behaviour of objects seem to persist into the future, and throughout the unobserved present. Hume's argument is that we cannot rationally justify the claim that nature will continue to be uniform, as justification comes in only two varieties—demonstrative reasoning and probable reasoning—and both of these are inadequate. With regard to demonstrative reasoning, Hume argues that the uniformity principle cannot be demonstrated, as it is "consistent and conceivable" that nature might stop being regular. Turning to probable reasoning, Hume argues that we cannot hold that nature will continue to be uniform because it has been in the past. As this is using the very sort of reasoning (induction) that is under question, it would be circular reasoning. Thus, no form of justification will rationally warrant our inductive inferences.


title: David Hume

text: Hume's solution to this problem is to argue that, rather than reason, natural instinct explains the human practice of making inductive inferences. He asserts that "Nature, by an absolute and uncontroulable ["sic"] necessity has determin'd us to judge as well as to breathe and feel." In 1985, and in agreement with Hume, John D. Kenyon writes: Reason might manage to raise a doubt about the truth of a conclusion of natural inductive inference just for a moment ... but the sheer agreeableness of animal faith will protect us from excessive caution and sterile suspension of belief.Others, such as Charles Sanders Peirce, have demurred from Hume's solution, while some, such as Kant and Karl Popper, have thought that Hume's analysis has "posed a most fundamental challenge to all human knowledge claims".


title: David Hume

text: The notion of causation is closely linked to the problem of induction. According to Hume, we reason inductively by associating constantly conjoined events. It is the mental act of association that is the basis of our concept of causation. At least three interpretations of Hume's theory of causation are represented in the literature:


title: David Hume

text: Hume acknowledged that there are events constantly unfolding, and humanity cannot guarantee that these events are caused by prior events or are independent instances. He opposed the widely accepted theory of causation that 'all events have a specific course or reason'. Therefore, Hume crafted his own theory of causation, formed through his empiricist and sceptic beliefs. He split causation into two realms: "All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas, and Matters of Fact." Relations of Ideas are "a priori" and represent universal bonds between ideas that mark the cornerstones of human thought. Matters of Fact are dependent on the observer and experience. They are often not universally held to be true among multiple persons. Hume was an Empiricist, meaning he believed "causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience". He goes on to say that, even with the perspective of the past, humanity cannot dictate future events because thoughts of the past are limited, compared to the possibilities for the future. Hume's separation between Matters of Fact and Relations of Ideas is often referred to as "Hume's fork."


title: David Hume

text: Hume explains his theory of causation and causal inference by division into three different parts. In these three branches he explains his ideas and compares and contrasts his views to his predecessors. These branches are the Critical Phase, the Constructive Phase, and Belief. In the Critical Phase, Hume denies his predecessors' theories of causation. Next, he uses the Constructive Phase to resolve any doubts the reader may have had while observing the Critical Phase. "Habit or Custom" mends the gaps in reasoning that occur without the human mind even realising it. Associating ideas has become second nature to the human mind. It "makes us expect for the future, a similar train of events with those which have appeared in the past". However, Hume says that this association cannot be trusted because the span of the human mind to comprehend the past is not necessarily applicable to the wide and distant future. This leads him to the third branch of causal inference, Belief. Belief is what drives the human mind to hold that expectancy of the future is based on past experience. Throughout his explanation of causal inference, Hume is arguing that the future is not certain to be repetition of the past and that the only way to justify induction is through uniformity.


title: David Hume

text: The logical positivist interpretation is that Hume analyses causal propositions, such as "A causes B", in terms of regularities in perception: "A causes B" is equivalent to "Whenever A-type events happen, B-type ones follow", where "whenever" refers to all possible perceptions. In his "Treatise of Human Nature", Hume wrote:


title: David Hume

text: Power and necessity…are…qualities of perceptions, not of objects…felt by the soul and not perceiv'd externally in bodies.


title: David Hume

text: This view is rejected by sceptical realists, who argue that Hume thought that causation amounts to more than just the regular succession of events. Hume said that, when two events are causally conjoined, a necessary connection underpins the conjunction:


title: David Hume

text: Shall we rest contented with these two relations of contiguity and succession, as affording a complete idea of causation? By no means…there is a "necessary connexion" to be taken into consideration.


title: David Hume

text: Angela Coventry writes that, for Hume, "there is nothing in any particular instance of cause and effect involving external objects which suggests the idea of power or necessary connection" and "we are ignorant of the powers that operate between objects". However, while denying the possibility of knowing the powers between objects, Hume accepted the causal principle, writing: "I never asserted so absurd a proposition as that something could arise without a cause."


title: David Hume

text: It has been argued that, while Hume did not think that causation is reducible to pure regularity, he was not a fully fledged realist either. Simon Blackburn calls this a quasi-realist reading, saying that "Someone talking of cause is voicing a distinct mental set: he is by no means in the same state as someone merely describing regular sequences." In Hume's words, "nothing is more usual than to apply to external bodies every internal sensation, which they occasion".


title: David Hume

text: Empiricist philosophers, such as Hume and Berkeley, favoured the bundle theory of personal identity. In this theory, "the mind itself, far from being an independent power, is simply 'a bundle of perceptions' without unity or cohesive quality". The self is nothing but a bundle of experiences linked by the relations of causation and resemblance; or, more accurately, the empirically warranted idea of the self is just the idea of such a bundle. According to Hume:


title: David Hume

text: This view is supported by, for example, positivist interpreters, who have seen Hume as suggesting that terms such as "self", "person", or "mind" refer to collections of "sense-contents". A modern-day version of the bundle theory of the mind has been advanced by Derek Parfit in his "Reasons and Persons".


title: David Hume

text: However, some philosophers have criticised Hume's bundle-theory interpretation of personal identity. They argue that distinct selves can have perceptions that stand in relation to similarity and causality. Thus, perceptions must already come parcelled into distinct "bundles" before they can be associated according to the relations of similarity and causality. In other words, the mind must already possess a unity that cannot be generated, or constituted, by these relations alone. Since the bundle-theory interpretation portrays Hume as answering an ontological question, philosophers like Galen Strawson see Hume as not very concerned with such questions and have queried whether this view is really Hume's. Instead, Strawson suggests that Hume might have been answering an epistemological question about the causal origin of our concept of the self. In the Appendix to the "Treatise", Hume declares himself dissatisfied with his earlier account of personal identity in Book 1. Corliss Swain notes that "Commentators agree that if Hume did find some new problem" when he reviewed the section on personal identity, "he wasn't forthcoming about its nature in the Appendix." One interpretation of Hume's view of the self, argued for by philosopher and psychologist James Giles, is that Hume is not arguing for a bundle theory, which is a form of reductionism, but rather for an eliminative view of the self. Rather than reducing the self to a bundle of perceptions, Hume rejects the idea of the self altogether. On this interpretation, Hume is proposing a "no-self theory" and thus has much in common with Buddhist thought (see "anattā"). Psychologist Alison Gopnik has argued that Hume was in a position to learn about Buddhist thought during his time in France in the 1730s.


title: David Hume

text: "Practical reason" relates to whether standards or principles exist that are also authoritative for all rational beings, dictating people's intentions and actions. Hume is mainly considered an anti-rationalist, denying the possibility for practical reason, although other philosophers such as Christine Korsgaard, Jean Hampton, and Elijah Millgram claim that Hume is not so much of an anti-rationalist as he is just a sceptic of practical reason.


title: David Hume

text: Hume denied the existence of practical reason as a principle because he claimed reason does not have any effect on morality, since morality is capable of producing effects in people that reason alone cannot create. As Hume explains in "A Treatise of Human Nature" (1740): Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason of itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason."Since practical reason is supposed to regulate our actions (in theory), Hume denied practical reason on the grounds that reason cannot directly oppose passions. As Hume puts it, "Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them." Reason is less significant than any passion because reason has no original influence, while "A passion is an original existence, or, if you will, modification of existence."


title: David Hume

text: Practical reason is also concerned with the value of actions rather than the truth of propositions, so Hume believed that reason's shortcoming of affecting morality proved that practical reason could not be authoritative for all rational beings, since morality was essential for dictating people's intentions and actions.


title: David Hume

text: Hume's writings on ethics began in the 1740 "Treatise" and were refined in his "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals" (1751). He understood "feeling", rather than "knowing", as that which governs ethical actions, stating that "moral decisions are grounded in moral sentiment." Arguing that reason cannot be behind morality, he wrote:


title: David Hume

text: Morals excite passions, and produce or prevent actions. Reason itself is utterly impotent in this particular. The rules of morality, therefore, are not conclusions of our reason.


title: David Hume

text: Hume's "moral sentimentalism" was shared by his close friend Adam Smith, and the two were mutually influenced by the moral reflections of their older contemporary, Francis Hutcheson. Peter Singer claims that Hume's argument that morals cannot have a rational basis alone "would have been enough to earn him a place in the history of ethics."


title: David Hume

text: Hume also put forward the "is–ought problem", later known as "Hume's Law", denying the possibility of logically deriving what "ought" to be from what "is". According to the "Treatise" (1740), in every system of morality that Hume has read, the author begins by stating facts about the world as it "is" but always ends up suddenly referring to what "ought" to be the case. Hume demands that a reason should be given for inferring what "ought to be" the case, from "what is" the case. This is because it "seems altogether inconceivable, how this new relation can be a deduction from others."


title: David Hume

text: Hume's theory of ethics has been influential in modern-day meta-ethical theory, helping to inspire emotivism, and ethical expressivism and non-cognitivism, as well as Allan Gibbard's general theory of moral judgment and judgments of rationality.


title: David Hume

text: Hume's ideas about aesthetics and the theory of art are spread throughout his works, but are particularly connected with his ethical writings, and also the essays "Of the Standard of Taste" and "Of Tragedy" (1757). His views are rooted in the work of Joseph Addison and Francis Hutcheson. In the "Treatise" (1740), he touches on the connection between beauty & deformity and vice & virtue. His later writings on the subject continue to draw parallels of beauty and deformity in art with conduct and character.


title: David Hume

text: In "Standard of Taste", Hume argues that no rules can be drawn up about what is a tasteful object. However, a reliable critic of taste can be recognised as objective, sensible and unprejudiced, and as having extensive experience. "Of Tragedy" addresses the question of why humans enjoy tragic drama. Hume was concerned with the way spectators find pleasure in the sorrow and anxiety depicted in a tragedy. He argued that this was because the spectator is aware that he is witnessing a dramatic performance. There is pleasure in realising that the terrible events that are being shown are actually fiction. Furthermore, Hume laid down rules for educating people in taste and correct conduct, and his writings in this area have been very influential on English and Anglo-Saxon aesthetics.


title: David Hume

text: Hume, along with Thomas Hobbes, is cited as a classical compatibilist about the notions of freedom and determinism. "Compatibilism" seeks to reconcile human freedom with the mechanist view that human beings are part of a deterministic universe, which is completely governed by physical laws. Hume, on this point, was influenced greatly by the scientific revolution, particularly by Sir Isaac Newton. Hume argued that the dispute between freedom and determinism continued over 2000 years due to ambiguous terminology. He wrote: "From this circumstance alone, that a controversy has been long kept on foot…we may presume that there is some ambiguity in the expression," and that different disputants use different meanings for the same terms.


title: David Hume

text: Hume defines the concept of necessity as "the uniformity, observable in the operations of nature; where similar objects are constantly conjoined together," and liberty as "a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will." He then argues that, according to these definitions, not only are the two compatible, but liberty "requires" necessity. For if our actions were not necessitated in the above sense, they would "have so little in connexion with motives, inclinations and circumstances, that one does not follow with a certain degree of uniformity from the other." But if our actions are not thus connected to the will, then our actions can never be free: they would be matters of "chance; which is universally allowed to have no existence." Australian philosopher John Passmore writes that confusion has arisen because "necessity" has been taken to mean "necessary connexion." Once this has been abandoned, Hume argues that "liberty and necessity will be found not to be in conflict one with another."


title: David Hume

text: Moreover, Hume goes on to argue that in order to be held morally responsible, it is required that our behaviour be caused or necessitated, for, as he wrote:


title: David Hume

text: Actions are, by their very nature, temporary and perishing; and where they proceed not from some "cause" in the character and disposition of the person who performed them, they can neither redound to his honour, if good; nor infamy, if evil.


title: David Hume

text: Hume describes the link between causality and our capacity to rationally make a decision from this an inference of the mind. Human beings assess a situation based upon certain predetermined events and from that form a choice. Hume believes that this choice is made spontaneously. Hume calls this form of decision making the liberty of spontaneity.


title: David Hume

text: Education writer Richard Wright considers that Hume's position rejects a famous moral puzzle attributed to French philosopher Jean Buridan. The Buridan's ass puzzle describes a donkey that is hungry. This donkey has separate bales of hay on both sides, which are of equal distances from him. The problem concerns which bale the donkey chooses. Buridan was said to believe that the donkey would die, because he has no autonomy. The donkey is incapable of forming a rational decision as there is no motive to choose one bale of hay over the other. However, human beings are different, because a human who is placed in a position where he is forced to choose one loaf of bread over another will make a decision to take one in lieu of the other. For Buridan, humans have the capacity of autonomy, and he recognises the choice that is ultimately made will be based on chance, as both loaves of bread are exactly the same. However, Wright says that Hume completely rejects this notion, arguing that a human will spontaneously act in such a situation because he is faced with impending death if he fails to do so. Such a decision is not made on the basis of chance, but rather on necessity and spontaneity, given the prior predetermined events leading up to the predicament.


title: David Hume

text: Hume's argument is supported by modern-day compatibilists such as R. E. Hobart, a pseudonym of philosopher Dickinson S. Miller. However, P. F. Strawson argued that the issue of whether we hold one another morally responsible does not ultimately depend on the truth or falsity of a metaphysical thesis such as determinism. This is because our so holding one another is a non-rational human sentiment that is not predicated on such theses.


title: David Hume

text: Philosopher Paul Russell (2005) contends that Hume wrote "on almost every central question in the philosophy of religion", and that these writings "are among the most important and influential contributions on this topic." Touching on the philosophy, psychology, history, and anthropology of religious thought, Hume's 1757 dissertation "The Natural History of Religion" argues that the monotheistic religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all derive from earlier polytheistic religions. He went on to suggest that all religious belief "traces, in the end, to dread of the unknown". Hume had also written on religious subjects in the first "Enquiry", as well as later in the "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion".


title: David Hume

text: Although he wrote a great deal about religion, Hume's personal views have been the subject of much debate. Some modern critics have described Hume's religious views as agnostic or have described him as a "Pyrrhonian skeptic". Contemporaries considered him to be an atheist, or at least un-Christian, enough so that the Church of Scotland seriously considered bringing charges of infidelity against him. Evidence of his un-Christian beliefs can especially be found in his writings on miracles, in which he attempts to separate historical method from the narrative accounts of miracles. Nevertheless, modern scholars have tended to dismiss the claims of Hume's contemporaries describing him as an atheist as coming from religiously intolerant people who did not understand Hume’s philosophy. The fact that contemporaries suspected him of atheism is exemplified by a story Hume liked to tell:


title: David Hume

text: The best theologian he ever met, he used to say, was the old Edinburgh fishwife who, having recognized him as Hume the atheist, refused to pull him out of the bog into which he had fallen until he declared he was a Christian and repeated the Lord's prayer.