David Hume's big toe

Most days I walk to work past a statue of David Hume on Edinburgh's Royal Mile. Until this morning all I knew about Hume was that he was a philosopher of the Scottish Enlightenment and - if pushed - I would have correctly guessed that he came from Berwickshire.

By the time I reached the statue this morning I'd learnt a good deal more about him by listening to a podcast of Radio 4's In our time. I paused the programme to photograph the statue's toe. I think it must be shiny because it's the one part of the statue that people can reach to touch. I then continued my walk and listened to the remainder of the podcast. It was all very interesting. I was particularly struck at how modern and relevant Hume's ideas are to twenty-first century discussions of the nature of knowledge.

Strangely, later in the day I was looking something up on the Arts and Humanities Research Council's web site and stumbled upon details of a project that charts Hume's intellectual development.