A Core Relationship for Adam Smith: 250 Years On from the Death of David Hume

The 25th of August marks the 250th anniversary of the death of David Hume, one of the towering figures of the Scottish Enlightenment.

Hume and Adam Smith shared a deep and enduring friendship that began around 1749–1750 and lasted until Hume’s death. The older philosopher became both mentor and equal to the younger Smith; they exchanged ideas that shaped one another’s thinking, mixed in the same lively intellectual circles in Edinburgh, and maintained a rich correspondence that stretched across more than a quarter of a century. Their letters are full of warmth, wit and mutual respect, revealing not only personal affection but also the lively exchange of philosophical and economic insights that helped define the era. 

After Hume’s death Smith wrote that he had always considered him “as approaching as nearly to the idea of a perfectly wise and virtuous man, as perhaps the nature of human frailty will permit.”

To mark this significant anniversary, the David Hume Institute is hosting a Zoom event exploring Hume’s character and ideas. For those who wish to experience this remarkable friendship at first hand, a visit to the Adam Smith Heritage Centre is unmissable. There, high-quality scans of many of the original letters between Hume and Smith are on display, offering a rare and intimate window into the minds of two of Scotland’s greatest thinkers. Standing before these documents, visitors can almost feel the warmth of their long-standing correspondence and the intellectual spark that helped shape the modern world.

This anniversary offers a timely opportunity to reflect on how friendship, conversation and correspondence helped forge some of the most influential ideas in modern thought and there is no better place to begin that reflection than at the Adam Smith Heritage Centre.