Writer Gallery

David Hume, Scottish philosopher

David Hume (1711-1776). Historical artwork of the Scottish enlightenment philosopher, historian and economist David Hume. Hume opposed the rationalists such as Descartes in believing that human passions ruled reason. In his A Treatise of Human Nature he tried to create a naturalistic science of man examining the psychological basis of human nature. He challenged the natural theological argument from design in his Dialogues concerning Natural Religion 1779. He is seen as a founding father of cognitive science and influenced (amongst others) Albert Einstein, Karl Popper, Charles Darwin, Immanuel Kant, Shopenhauer and Wittgenstein. Published in Lives of men of letters and science by Henry Brougham, in 1846

© Todd-White Art Photography

Anton Chekhov with actors

Anton Chekhov with actors of the Moscow State Art Theatre in 1899 from l. to r standing.: Vishnevsky, Luzhski, Niemirovich Danchenko, Knipper, Stanislavsky, Roksanova, Nikolaeva, Andreiev,. and from l. to r. sitting: Rayevskaya, Artyom, Chekhov, Lilina, Tikhomirov, and Meyerhold. Russian playwright. Pre-Bolshevik Russia. Writer. photographic postcard

© Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library 2008 - All Rights Reserved

Richard Dawkins, British science writer

Richard Dawkins. Caricature of the British ethnologist, evolutionary biologist and controversial author Richard Dawkins (born 1941) holding one of his books. Dawkins is best known for his 1976 book The Selfish Gene which popularised the gene-centred view of evolution. He is an atheist, Vice President of the British Humanist Association and is well known for his criticism of creationism and intelligent design theories. In his 2006 book The God Delusion Dawkins proposed that a supernatural creator almost certainly does not exist and that religious faith is a delusion

© GARY BROWN/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY