Dead Famous In Edinburgh

How we remember the dead tells us a lot about who we are as a society. Who we remember, tells us even more.  Today on my afternoon walk, I entered Old Calton Cemetery, Edinburgh. I wanted to find the grave of David Hume, the prominent Scottish philosopher.  I am a philosophy graduate but I have never felt the need to come here before, despite living in this city for ten years.  I remember the first time I heard of David Hume. Sometime around 1997, James Daly, the Marxist political philosopher, placed his name on a white board.  The board had two headings. On the left hand side, under the capitalised and underlined title of ‘philosophers,’ were names such as Socrates and Aristotle. On the right hand side, under the word ‘Sophists’, David Hume’s name was marked.        At the time, I remember thinking this was a simplistic introduction: a list of good guys and bad guys. James Daly was no idiot though, nor was he underestimating his students.   Sophists were interested in wisdom but they