The Ideas of David Hume (1711-1776) in the Development of Psychology and Multicultural Education
Abstract
Education need psychological approach in its process and mechanism. Contemporary psychology rooted in philosophical thought and physiological inquiry. Psychology cannot be separated from the influence of three schools in philosophy, i.e. materialism, empiricism and positivism. One of the empiricist thinkers who gave nuances and color in the development of psychology was David Hume (1711-1776). This article aims to reveal David Hume's thoughts which provided motives in the development of psychology. This article is the result of research in an effort to develop historical and philosophical theories of psychology. This research aims to investigate the background of the emergence of psychology from David Hume's thoughts. The focus of this research is the influence of David Hume's empiricism on the development of psychology. The research method is philosophical hermeneutics with synchronic and diachronic interpretations of David Hume's thoughts. This research is a literature study by collecting a number of library data from various sources, both primary and secondary. The primary literature used is texts on the history of psychology and David Hume’s works. The secondary sources for this research are various comments on Hume's thoughts and general psychology texts. The results of this research can be used as a reference in learning related to the history and philosophy of psychology. This article presents Hume's thoughts in the search for human nature along with the methodological principles he developed which inspired scientists after Hume, as well as the influence of his thoughts on the progress of experimental psychology which continues to develop to give a pattern to contemporary psychology.
References
Bijou, S. W. (1970). What Psychology has to Offer Education—Now. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 3(1), 65.
Candlish, S. (1998). 'Mind, bundle theory of.' Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Taylor and Francis, viewed 6 May 2024,
Cohon, Rachel. (2018). "Hume's Moral Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2018 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
Copleston, S. F. (1959). A History of Philosophy, Vol. V: Modern Philosophy the British Philosophers from Hobbes to Hume. Doble Day, New York.
Crozier, W. R. (2009). The psychology of education: achievements and challenges. Oxford Review of Education, 35(5), 587–600. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27784587
Dacey, M. (2016). Rethinking Associations in Psychology. Synthese, 193(12), 3763-3786.
Demeter, T. (2012). Hume's Experimental Method. British Journal for the History of Philosophy, 20(3), 577-599.
Hatfield, G. (2009). Rationalist Roots of Modern Psychology. In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology (pp. 3-20). Routledge.
Hume, D. (1896). A Treatise of Human Nature. Clarendon Press.
Jarvis, M. (2011). Teori-Teori Psikologi. Bandung: Nusa Media.
Kim, A. (2009). Early Experimental Psychology. In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology (pp. 63-80). Routledge.
Landy, D. (2017). Hume’s Science of Human Nature: Scientific Realism, Reason, and Substantial Explanation. Routledge.
Mandelbaum, Eric. (2022). "Associationist Theories of Thought", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2022 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL =
Morris, William Edward and Charlotte R. Brown. (2023). "David Hume", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL =
Martin, R. (2009). Empiricist Roots of Modern Psychology. In The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Psychology (pp. 21-40). Routledge.
Nuyen, A. T. (1992). The Fragility of the Self: From Bundle Theory to Deconstruction. The Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 6(2), 111–122. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25670024
O'Brien, D. (2017). Hume on Education. Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, 98, 619-642.
Phillips, S. (1976). The Contributions of Psychology to Education. Oxford Review of Education, 2(2), 179–196. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1050213
Pike, N. (1967). Hume’s Bundle Theory of the Self: A Limited Defense. American Philosophical Quarterly, 4(2), 159–165. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20009239
Schultz, D.P. and Schultz, S.E. (2013). Sejarah Psikologi Modern. Nusamedia. Bandung.
Schmitter, Amy M., "17th and 18th Century Theories of Emotions", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =
Sugden, R. (2021). Hume's experimental psychology and the idea of erroneous preferences. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 183, 836-848.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work
