Edinburgh University must not rewrite history by renaming David Hume Tower

Many years ago, I studied David Hume as part of my Moral Philosophy course at Edinburgh Universit y. Whilst I remember that he wasn’t my favourite philosopher, I would argue, strongly, against the renaming of the David Hume Tower (Scotsman, 14 September”.

Decades later, I lived in the area where David Hume was born and spent his school days. Here I learned more ab out him and the reasons why, to this day, he is commemorated there. He was a man of his time and his thinking and opinions were of that stage in history.

Several centuries later, I am far from confident that future generations will find beyond reproach the understanding and decisions of my contemporaries. Do I have the right to detract from what David Hume left as a legacy to the study of philosophy, and his contribution to that body of knowledge, in his own lifetime?

I contend that our present efforts can never – nor should they – eradicate the “seeming errors” in our ancestors’ past, and we would be well advised to ensure that we get things right for our own day . . . and for me the David Hume Tower will remain exactly that.

OLIVE BELL Randolph Crescent, Dunbar

I am shocked that a higher education institution such as Edinburgh University should think it can delete or rewrite the past by renaming the David Hume Tower

David Hume was a great philosopher, warts and all, and he no doubt held certain views unacceptable now to us because he lived three centuries before ours . To try to erase his great name in this way is both silly and profoundly worrying as an Orwellian prece - dent.

Intolerance of the inconvenient human past is no excuse for the falsification or at least contortion of history. I feel sure other alumni will do as I am doing and cease any donations to the university’s development fund.

GUS LOGAN York Road North Berwick

With the name change to David Hume Tower, the greatest of the modern philosophers, David Hume, will thankfully no longer be associated with the appalling cultural, civic and historic vandalism wrought by Edinburgh University in the 1960s when they destroyed 18th century George Square.

The philosophy ofDavid Hume will continue to inspire humanit y, long after the names of his “unco guid” detractors have been forgotten.

JIM STEWART Market Street, Musselburgh

I find it very disappointing that Edinburgh University has decided to rename the David Hume Tower. How many people of Afro-Caribbean origin have genuinely found the name of this building offensive?

In the course of apos thumou switch hunt it hastr anspired that David Hume encouraged someone to buy a plantation in Grenada, a country that nowadays of its own free will is a member of the Commonwealth and still retains the British monarch as its head of state.

For decades, Afro-Ca ribbean British students and students from Africa and the West Indies attending Edinburgh University, not to mention academics teaching at the university, were indifferent to the name of this building. The issue here is not about causing offence to Afro-caribbean people, it is about humouring uptight holier-than-thou Caucasian people.

ROBERT KELLY Bonhill Road, Dumbarton