An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 1st Edition

This is one of the most impressive free kindle editions of a book that I have read. It is taken from a 1902 printing (a 2nd edition) that was reprinted from the posthumous edition of 1777. It includes endnotes and an extensive index put together by L.A Selby-Bigge, a late fellow of University College, Oxford. There is a table of contents at the beginning with hyperlinks. The endnotes also have hyperlinks, which makes it easy to read the notes and jump back to the text. The index also has hyperlinks. This is the first kindle freebie that I have seen with these features. This is handy for this type of book. Note that Hume is Scottish and the book was originally written in English.

I have always had an interest in philosophy and history and finally got around to reading this foundational work. The title describes exactly what this book is about. Hume starts by giving a brief introduction to philosophy and then jumps into the main questions. The biggie is where do ideas come from? How do we understand things? What is instinct, inspiration? It is interesting that his answers to these questions still hold up well to modern thought.

Hume wrote this book at a time and place where Calvinism still held great sway and God was thought to be behind every thought and action. His ideas were radical and I was interested to see how he tried to delicately handle ideas that would potentially offend many of his readers.

I highly recommend this seminal work to any one interested in philosophy and enjoys stretching their minds a bit. This is something I will refer to often. I continue to enjoy the access my Kindle gives me to great classics like this.

This book is not the "best" book of philosophy. It is more. Nor is it the "king" of philosophy books. It is more. It is, to say the least, the "god" of the books of philosophy. The issues discussed are only the most serious philosophical issues. The arguments are not merely compelling but also beautiful, appealing. And the spirit is that of the enlightenment at its most robust form. A word for philosophy lovers: please read this book with your utmost concentration and you will love its ideas and enjoy its prose. The author may not convince everyone but challenges anyone that reads his philosophy. So you will be challenged, intrigued, motivated to question some or all of your convictions, or be persuaded to agree with the author. But more importantly, you will adore Hume.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650), "the father of modern philosophy," was a rationalist who attempted to attain certainty by discovering "first principles" on which he could overcome skeptical doubt and establish irrefutable truth. He claimed that one thing is absolutely certain: Cogito, ergo sum ("I think, therefore I am"). From this solid rock on which to stand, he proceeded to claim that by reason alone he could prove the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the reality of an afterlife.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was trained in the rationalist tradition, but when he read David Hume's work, the impact shattered his way of thinking. In the preface to his `Prolegomenon,' Kant stated that reading Hume woke him from his "dogmatic slumbers." If Hume was right, then metaphysics, as Kant had previously believed it, was impossible, nothing but "sophistry and illusion." In his most famous work, Critique of Pure Reason, Kant wrote, "I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge [that is, show the limits of reason and human understanding] in order to make room for faith."

An empiricist and skeptic, David Hume (1711-1776) was born and died in Edinburgh, Scotland. His magnum opus, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), like Kant's Critique of Pure Reason (1781), is one of the key texts of the 18th-century Enlightenment. Taking a dim view of miracles, mysticism, and metaphysics, Hume skeptically asserted that empirical proofs of religion (such as the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and an afterlife) are not possible. In effect, he was saying (to paraphrase Kant), "I have therefore found it necessary to deny knowledge [that is, reason and human understanding] in order to make room for lack of faith [that is, to make room for skepticism and unbelief]."

In the famous last paragraph of his Enquiry, Hume writes: "When we run over libraries, persuaded of these [empirical and skeptical] principles, what havoc must we make? 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 experience? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion."

Hume clarifies the terms "a priori" reasoning (deduction) and "a posteriori" empiricism (induction). Deductive reasoning is done "before experience," such as the mathematical conclusion that 2 + 2 = 4. Inductive reasoning is done "after experience"; it is the scientific method (forming hypotheses, performing experiments, and observing phenomena). The former process, "abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number" (as in mathematics and geometry), does indeed produce certainty. However, the latter process produces, at best, only probability (albeit often a strong probability), based as it is on the assumption of "the uniformity of nature" (that the universe will be the same in the future as it is in the present). Therefore, Hume's "empiricism" is qualified by its open-ended character (as scientific hypotheses are subject to revision as new evidence is produced).

Hume's "skepticism" is also qualified. Although Hume admits that, technically, Pyrrhonism (excessive skepticism) cannot be philosophically disproven, Hume recommends the practicality of a "mitigated" or moderate skepticism that acknowledges the importance of common sense and common life.

Hume's Enquiry is, one might quip, not an easy work for our "human understanding" to grasp. This is especially true of his erudite, but daunting, explications of cause and effect. Another challenging chapter deals with the ages-old dispute between determinism and free will. His controversial and provocative essay, "Of Miracles," caused howls of protest from those accusing him of atheism, and resulted in his forever being excluded from a professional academic career.

The Clarendon Critical Edition of Hume's Enquiry is recommended. It contains a substantial (55-page) introduction by the editor (Tom L. Beauchamp, Professor of Philosophy at Georgetown University), who explains the intellectual background to the work and surveys its main themes. This edition also includes detailed explanatory notes on the text, annotations, a glossary of terms, a full list of references, and a section of supplementary readings.