David Hume
1711 – 1776 · 65 years · Edinburgh · Europe
Empiricist sceptic: we never observe causation but infer it from habit, and morality is rooted in feeling rather than reason. Kant said Hume woke him from his "dogmatic slumber".
Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English) · 18th century
Portrait: Allan Ramsay · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Contemporaries around the world
Europe
- Voltaire — French Enlightenment writer, 17 years older
- Johann Sebastian Bach — German composer and organist, 26 years older
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe — German poet and thinker, 38 years younger
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Austrian composer, 45 years younger
- Isaac Newton — English physicist and mathematician, 68 years older
- Carl Linnaeus — Swedish naturalist, 4 years older
Eastern Europe & Russia
- Mikhail Lomonosov — Russian polymath, born the same year
- Catherine the Great — Empress of Russia, 18 years younger
- Peter the Great — first Emperor of Russia, 39 years older
- Leonhard Euler — Swiss mathematician, 4 years older
- Elizabeth — empress who founded Moscow University, 2 years older
- Alexander Suvorov — Russian generalissimo, 19 years younger
Middle East
- Nader Shah — Shah of Iran and conqueror, 23 years older
- Ahmed III — sultan of the 'Tulip Era', 38 years older
- Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab — Islamic religious reformer, 8 years older
- Mustafa III — sultan who lost the war to Catherine II, 6 years younger
- Abdul Hamid I — sultan of the Küçük Kaynarca peace and the loss of Crimea, 14 years younger
- Osman III — sultan who spent 50 years in the 'cage', 12 years older
Africa
- Usman dan Fodio — founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, 43 years younger
- Moulay Ismail — Sultan of Morocco, 66 years older
Asia
- Kangxi Emperor — Qing emperor of China, 57 years older
- Qianlong Emperor — Qing emperor of China, born the same year
- Tokugawa Yoshimune — reforming shogun who allowed Western books, 27 years older
- Tipu Sultan — ruler of Mysore, 40 years younger
- Katsushika Hokusai — Japanese artist, 49 years younger
- Tokugawa Ieshige — ailing shogun whose speech only one courtier understood, 1 year younger
Americas
- Benjamin Franklin — American scientist and statesman, 5 years older
- George Washington — first President of the United States, 21 years younger
- Túpac Amaru II — leader of an Andean uprising, 27 years younger
- Thomas Jefferson — third President of the United States, 32 years younger
- Toussaint Louverture — leader of the Haitian Revolution, 32 years younger
- Aleijadinho — Brazilian sculptor and architect, 19 years younger
Oceania
- James Cook — British navigator, 17 years younger
- Tupaia — Tahitian navigator and priest, 14 years younger
- Kamehameha I — first King of Hawaii, 47 years younger
- Arthur Phillip — first Governor of New South Wales, 27 years younger
- Bennelong — Aboriginal intermediary, 53 years younger
The world in their lifetime
- 1721 Proclamation of the Russian Empire — aged 10, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1722 Fall of Isfahan — aged 11, Middle East
- 1747 Ahmad Shah Durrani founds the Afghan state — aged 36, Middle East
- 1755 Lisbon earthquake — aged 44, Europe
- 1755–1758 The Dzungar genocide — aged 44, Asia
- 1756–1763 Seven Years' War — aged 45, Europe
- 1757 Battle of Plassey — aged 46, Asia
- c. 1760 Start of the Industrial Revolution — aged 49, Europe
- 1761 Third Battle of Panipat — aged 50, Asia
- 1762 Accession of Catherine the Great — aged 51, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1764 Founding of the Hermitage — aged 53, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1768–1771 Cook's first voyage — aged 57, Oceania
- c. 1768 Extinction of Steller's sea cow — aged 57, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1769 Watt's steam engine — aged 58, Europe
- 1772–1795 Partitions of Poland — aged 61, Eastern Europe & Russia
- 1776 US Declaration of Independence — aged 65, Americas