Final answer:
Berkeley's idealism posited that existence is contingent upon perception, relying on the existence of God, while Hume's skepticism raised doubts about religious and metaphysical claims, marking a cautious stance on conclusions drawn from sensory experiences.
Step-by-step explanation:
David Hume and George Berkeley were both prominent figures in the British Empiricist tradition, with David Hume often considered as having developed a form of skepticism in response to Berkeley's idealism. George Berkeley proposed that material objects do not exist independently of the mind; instead, he claimed that existence is contingent upon being perceived by the senses, ultimately positing that an omnipresent God is responsible for all perceptions. Berkeley, thus, relates existence to the divine.
In contrast, Hume, while also an empiricist, took a more rigorous skeptical approach, questioning the justifiability of inferences about the nature of the external world and causality, as well as the legitimacy of religious narratives. He challenged the idea that we can know the existence of anything beyond our immediate perceptions, undermining the traditional arguments for the existence of God and the soul, in contrast to Berkeley’s idealistic notions.