April 26, 1711 ,David Hume is born at Edinburgh to a father who owned a 
small 
estate near Berwickshire named "Ninewells" and a mother, Katherine 
Falconer, 
who was from a family of lawyers. In 1776 Divid dies of cancer.


Hume questioned the process of inductive thinking, which had been the 
hallmark 
of science. Hume was of the view that no matter how many individual 
observations
an investigator may come up with (empiricism), he would never be in a 
position 
to make an unrestricted general statement.

http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Biographies/Philosophy/Hume.htm#Philosophy