John Locke (1632–1704) and David Hume (1711–1776) were pivotal figures in the philosophical foundations of psychology, particularly through their development of Associationism, a theory that greatly influenced early psychological thought. Locke, in his seminal work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690), introduced the idea that the mind is a "tabula rasa" or blank slate, arguing that all knowledge is derived from experience. He emphasized that simple ideas, acquired through sensation and reflection, combine into complex ideas through the process of association. Building on Locke’s empiricism, David Hume advanced the theory in A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40), proposing that the mind connects ideas through principles such as resemblance, contiguity in time or place, and cause and effect. Hume's emphasis on habit and experience as the foundation of human thought laid critical groundwork for later psychological theories of learning and behaviour. Together, Locke and Hume shifted the study of the mind from metaphysics toward observation and empirical analysis, laying essential groundwork for the emergence of psychology as a scientific discipline in the 19th century. Observation and analysis are pillars of science and life. Those who choose a personal relationship with God have the capacity to excel in both, should they seek Him and listen diligently, for He sees beyond the visible. "The Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” ( Samuel 16:7).