Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Disappointed by the public reception to "e;A Treatise of Human Nature"e;, published anonymously between 1739 and 1740, David Hume decided to produce a shorter more polemic version of that work nearly ten years later. That revision, which was published in 1748, would be entitled "e;An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding"e;. Dispensing with much of the extraneous material from the "e;Treatise"e;, Hume focuses on his more vital propositions in the "e;Enquiry"e;. Proceeding in incremental steps Hume discusses the following concepts: "e;The Different Species of Philosophy"e;, "e;The Origin of Ideas"e;, "e;The Association of Ideas"e;, "e;Sceptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding"e;, "e;Sceptical Solution of These Doubts"e;, "e;Probability"e;, "e;The Idea of Necessary Connection"e;, "e;Liberty and Necessity"e;, "e;The Reason of Animals"e;, "e;Miracles"e;, "e;Of a Particular Providence and of a Future State"e;, and "e;The Academical or Sceptical Philosophy"e;. Widely considered a classic of modern philosophical literature, "e;An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding"e; is Hume's theory of knowledge which would influence thinkers both in his time and for generations to come. This edition includes an introduction by L. A. Selby-Bigge and a biographical afterword.