An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding - Softcover

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David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scottish philosopher, historian, essayist, and one of the central figures of the Enlightenment. Born in Edinburgh, Hume became one of the most influential thinkers in the English language through his work on human nature, knowledge, causation, belief, religion, morality, politics, and history. His early Treatise of Human Nature did not receive the attention he hoped for, but his later essays, histories, and philosophical enquiries established his reputation as a major modern philosopher. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy describes Hume as generally regarded as one of the most important philosophers to write in English, and notes that he was also well known in his own time as a historian.Hume's philosophy is marked by scepticism, clarity, empirical method, and a refusal to accept inherited explanations without examining how human beings actually think, feel, believe, and judge. In works such as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, and The History of England, he helped define modern debates about causation, induction, religion, moral sentiment, virtue, utility, and political authority. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals is especially important because it presents Hume's mature account of morality as rooted in human sentiment, sympathy, usefulness, and social life rather than in abstract rationalism alone.