Nonfiction · 1748
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David Hume’s recasting of his Treatise for general readers, published in 1748, asks what we can know and how — and answers with the account of custom, causation and the limits of reason that Kant said woke him from his dogmatic slumber.
The argument is that every matter of fact we believe beyond what is present to the senses rests on cause and effect; that we never observe a cause, only one thing following another; and that the step from “has always” to “must” is taken by habit and not by reason. Hume does not conclude that we should stop taking it. He concludes that we cannot, and that philosophy had better describe what the mind actually does instead of what it ought to do.
This edition follows L. A. Selby-Bigge’s text and gives the essay complete.
Contents
- Epigraph
- Section I — Of the Different Species of Philosophy
- Section II — Of the Origin of Ideas
- Section III — Of the Association of Ideas
- Part I — Sceptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding
- Part II — Sceptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding
- Part I — Sceptical Solution of These Doubts
- Part II — Sceptical Solution of These Doubts
- Section VI — Of Probability
- Part I — Of the Idea of Necessary Connexion
- Part II — Of the Idea of Necessary Connexion
- Part I — Of Liberty and Necessity
- Part II — Of Liberty and Necessity
- Section IX — Of the Reason of Animals
- Part I — Of Miracles
- Part II — Of Miracles
- Section XI — Of a Particular Providence and of a Future State
- Part I — Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy
- Part II — Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy
- Part III — Of the Academical or Sceptical Philosophy
- Index
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About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Part of Essential Philosophy.
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About the author
1711–1776 · Enlightenment
David Hume (1711–1776) was born in Edinburgh and wrote A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) in France before he was thirty. The Enquiries concerning Human Understanding (1748) and the Principles of Morals (1751) recast its argument; his History of England (1754–62) made him famous and comfortable. He was librarian of the Advocates’ Library and secretary to the embassy in Paris, and died in Edinburgh, serene, as Adam Smith recorded.
Adjacent records
