David Hume (7 May 1711 - 25 August 1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist known especially for his philosophical empiricism and scepticism. He was one of the most important figures in the Scottish Enlightenment, and in the history of Western philosophy. He is the philosopher who is "widely regarded as the greatest who has ever written in the English language." Hume is often grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist.