The Scottish Enlightenment philosopher David Hume, was born in Chirnside. As part of the celebrations for his 250th anniversary, I proposed this idea for a monument…
Apparently, Hume was an amiable and easy-going genius, who’s influence has penetrated all aspects of human life over the centuries.
However, he believed that pale skinned people had intellects superior to others – in other words David Hume was a racist. For years now, debate has been raging around his racism, and about the extent to which a racist remark diminishes the undoubted greatness of this man from Chirnside.
As an environmental artist and philosopher, my task is to respond to the prevailing mood of the social context in which I offer to work. In the context of this being the 250th anniversary of Hume’s death, I tried to assuage the ‘great but racist’ polarity of the debate, in a way that reflects the sincerity of the people affected by that debate. In other words, the work that I offered sought to lay out the contradictions of the man, when viewed from our modern perspective.
David Hume’s mausoleum lies in the Old Calton Cemetry of Edinburgh. It was designed according to his wishes (by Robert Adam), to be open to the sky. That missing domed roof is interested me; where did it go and what purpose might it serve?
It somehow felt like the polarised contradictions of the current dabate writ loud and clear. On the one hand he had himself entombed in a mausoluem, but with no roof – could the missing dome be made to look like an eggshell, lying in pieces, scattered around a field in Chirnside, the place of his birth? As if to say here is something new that comes from the old? But actually, what is it that’s new?
This is where my own philosophical efforts became entangled with Hume’s. Over the years I’ve been developing the idea – based on the paradoxes of quantum entanglement – that, underneath all the apparent differences we sense in the world around us, we are actually of one state. I call this state the singularity of Under-standing, and have recently written a book which details the mechanics and dynamics of Under-standing. In other words, we are ONE with the things around us.
So now we have given some philosophical shape to our efforts in assuaging the polarisation of the current debate. It is a fact that we are one thing after all, and to this end, inscribed on all the interior surfaces of the broken eggshell would be the word ‘ONE’ written in every possible human tongue.
This almost seems like we’re chastising David Hume, the great man who’s influence has been felt down the centuries by the great and the good. And so to present that side of the man, on the exterior surfaces of the fragments of eggshell would be incised the names of all these others that he’s known to have influenced: Darwin, Einstein, Adam Smith….. etc.
Now we come to the shape of the man, not just worthy of celebrating but fit for modern times. To these ends, I proposed that, seated in the central portion of the eggshell, be a life sized sculpture of Hume cast in bronze. Bronze is not a pale coloured material, and thus the head of this figure will appear as being dark skinned. And to emphasise my point about the unity of all things, he will be wearing a multi-coloured coat as the images illustrate.
The last thing to mention is that the fragments of eggshell would have been sited on an area of gravel as shown, some being dark granite, some red whinstone chippings, so that people could follow a spiral path to the centre, and take the seat next to Hume.