David Hume 
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Barnes & Noble Digital Library): and Selections from A Treatise of Human Nature 
And Selections from A Treatise of Human Nature

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.


 

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is the thesis of a thinker who was a scientist, psychologist, metaphysician, and skeptic who continues to fascinate contemporary minds. The product of both youthful fire and mature consideration, the
Enquiry, ‘contain[s] everything of Consequence relating to the understanding.’ In the face of skepticism, the
Enquiry offered progress based on experience. In a time of dogmatism, the
Enquiry dissected the basis of religious faith and delivered a still-powerful critique. It endeavors to be nothing less than the construction of an anatomy of human nature.

About the author

David Hume was born on April 26, 1711, and grew up in Ninewells and Edinburgh, Scotland. His widowed mother educated her ‘uncommonly wake-minded’ son until he enrolled at age eleven at the University of Edinburgh, where he initially considered a career in law. At fifteen years old, he left the university to answer inner questions of theology and metaphysics. Among his friends were notables Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), Adam Smith (1723-90), and James Boswell (1740-95). After his death, others including Auguste Comte (1798-1857), Charles Darwin (1809-82), and Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) admitted admiration for his writings.