ABSTRACT
Attending to Hume’s British debts throws considerable light on his philosophical project. His debts to Locke and Berkeley are well known, but a more complete list of those debts must include Bacon and Hobbes, who provide the inspiration for his science of human nature; Newton and Clarke (the latter as a critical target, the former as both inspiration and target); and, for his positive account of psychology and morals, the “late philosophers” he lists in the Treatise’s Introduction. Giving these debts their due brings out Hume’s materialism-friendly interpretation of the new science and shows its skeptical implications for religious doctrines to be at the heart of his project.
