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An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

by David Hume

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This is David Hume's summary of his central doctrines and themes of his empiricist philosophy. It was a revision of an earlier effort, A Treatise of Human Nature, published anonymously in London in 1739–40. Hume was disappointed with the reception of the Treatise, which "fell stillborn from the press," as he put it, and so he tried again to disseminate a more developed version of his ideas to the public by writing a shorter and more polemical work.
The end product of his labours was the Enquiry which dispensed with much of the material from the Treatise, in favor of clarifying and emphasizing its most important aspects. For example, Hume's views on personal identity, do not appear. However, more vital propositions, such as Hume's argument for the role of habit in a theory of knowledge, are retained.
This book has been highly influential both in the years that immediately followed up until today. Immanuel Kant pointed to it as the book which woke him from his self-described "dogmatic slumber" The Enquiry is widely regarded as a classic in modern philosophical literature in part because David Hume is one of the greatest prose stylists of the English language. ( )
3 vote jwhenderson | Apr 21, 2011 |
I found this very difficult reading - maybe my mind wasn't in the right philosophical state. ( )
  dverg48 | Dec 1, 2010 |
Hume, if taken seriously, would have ended Darwinism before it started. Darwin loved Hume, but seemed to have missed the major thrust of this book. Darwin's daughter got it though.

I do not agree with Hume's epistemology, but he develops the only possible logical conclusion in a universe that is wholly materialistic, and of men limited only to their observations, to measurement of phenomena. Reductio ad absurdum: we can conclude nothing, but the fact that we can conclude nothing. There is certainty only in uncertainty. Hume knew that knowledge rests on a circle, he simply revealed how incredibly small the circle of materialism really is. ( )
1 vote chriszodrow | Jul 21, 2010 |
Fantastic book. Hume has some incredibly interesting views on the creation of identity, especially on the origin of thought. Highly recommend for those who wish to explore the question of "What is the self?" ( )
  Ljrei77 | Apr 30, 2010 |
Philosophy should have ended with this book. This book also has the best closing lines of anything ever written -- or, every philosophy text, I should say. 1984 has the best closing line of any novel ever written. ( )
1 vote bluedream | Apr 12, 2010 |
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» Add other authors (65 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
David Humeprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Gaja, VojtěchTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Moral philosophy, or the science of human nature, may be treated after two different manners; each of which has its peculiar merit, and may contribute to the entertainment, instruction, and reformation of mankind. The one considers man chiefly as born for action; and as influenced in his measures by taste and sentiment; pursuing one object, and avoiding another, according to the value which these objects seem to possess, and according to the light in which they present themselves. As virtue, of all objects, is allowed to be the most valuable, this species of philosophers paint her in the most amiable colours; borrowing all helps from poetry and eloquence, and treating their subject in an easy and obvious manner, and such as is best fitted to please the imagination, and engage the affections. They select the most striking observations and instances from common life; place opposite characters in a proper contrast; and alluring us into the paths of virtue by the views of glory and happiness, direct our steps in these paths by the soundest precepts and most illustrious examples. They make us feel the difference between vice and virtue; they excite and regulate our sentiments; and so they can but bend our hearts to the love of probity and true honour, they think, that they have fully attained the end of all their labours.
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Let's put to the torch
all books on metaphysics.
Just keeping it real.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0872202291, Paperback)

A landmark of enlightenment though, HUme's An Enquiry Concerning Human understanding is accompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: A Letter from a Gentlemen to His Friend in Edinburgh, hume's response to those accusing him of atheism, of advocating extreme scepticism, and of undermining the foundations of morality; and his Abstract of A Treatise of HUman Nature, which anticipates discussions developed in the Enquiry. In his concise Introduction, Eric Steinberg explores the conditions that led to write the Enquiry and the work's important relationship to Book 1 of Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature.

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Apr 2011 04:25:17 -0400)

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