An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
David Hume1748Hume pulled the rug out from under most of what we think we know, and he did it with a clear, almost cheerful kind of ruthlessness.
Read this if you…
- have read Descartes and want the natural next step
- are interested in skepticism and theory of how we know what we know
- are interested in philosophy of causation
Skip this if you…
- find systematic rigorous philosophical argumentation too boring
- don't want a guy questioning all knowledge rather than proposing anything
Why It Matters
Hume pulled the rug out from under most of what we think we know, and he did it with a clear, almost cheerful kind of ruthlessness. This book forced philosophy to face the problem of induction: the sun rising yesterday is no proof it rises tomorrow. Kant said Hume woke him from his "dogmatic slumber," and modern empiricism starts here.
The 
Take
Probably the most rigorously clear yet readable philosophy book i ever read. I largely agree with his propositions even if they aren’t too ambitious
Where to go next
- Meditations on First Philosophy by René Descartes. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding built on it. - Hume names Descartes directly — "the Cartesian doubt" is the antagonist of Section XII - The *Meditations* is the method Hume rejects: doubt everything, then rebuild from a single indubitable point - Read Descartes first and Hume's mitigated skepticism comes into focus as the counter-move — he argues Descartes' all-or-nothing doubt collapses on itself, and offers a humbler version in its place
- The Works of Cicero by Marcus Tullius Cicero. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding built on it. - When Hume names his own "academical or sceptical" philosophy in the *Enquiry*, he's claiming descent from Cicero's Academic skepticism — he says so explicitly - He read Cicero closely as a young man and held him up as the model of philosophy written for common life, not the schools - Read Cicero first and Hume's measured, doubt-tempered method stops looking like an invention and starts looking like an inheritance
Depicted in Art
Printed title page of the 1748 first edition, set in period type: 'Philosophical Essays concerning Human Understanding. By the Author of the Essays Moral and Political. London: Printed for A. Millar.'
David Hume, 1748
Same Ramsay 1766 portrait, scanned from the National Galleries of Scotland's PG 1057 record — Hume in scarlet and gold, resting on a Tacitus volume.
Allan Ramsay, 1766
Earlier Ramsay portrait of Hume at age 43, in a plain dark coat without the scarlet finery — a sober, scholarly bust-length view.
Allan Ramsay, 1754
Larger-than-life bronze of Hume seated bare-chested in classical Greek robes, a slate tablet on his knee, his right toe burnished gold by tourists rubbing it for luck.
Alexander Stoddart, 1995
Recommended Editions
Oxford University Press
2008
The Oxford World's Classics edited by Peter Millican. Millican is one of the sharpest living Hume scholars, and his notes make the causation and miracles arguments track the way Hume actually built them.
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Deep Dive
What It's About
This summary gives away plot details.
Notable Quotes
“A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.”
“If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.”