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Enquiries Concerning the Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals
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This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface.
We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
424 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1751
24 people are currently reading
1874 people want to read
About the author
David Hume
3,083 books1,642 followersDavid Hume was a Scottish historian, philosopher, economist, diplomat and essayist known today especially for his radical philosophical empiricism and scepticism.
In light of Hume's central role in the Scottish Enlightenment, and in the history of Western philosophy, Bryan Magee judged him as a philosopher "widely regarded as the greatest who has ever written in the English language." While Hume failed in his attempts to start a university career, he took part in various diplomatic and military missions of the time. He wrote The History of England which became a bestseller, and it became the standard history of England in its day.
His empirical approach places him with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others at the time as a British Empiricist.
Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature. In opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably René Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behaviour. He also argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience. He argued that inductive reasoning and therefore causality cannot be justified rationally. Our assumptions in favour of these result from custom and constant conjunction rather than logic. He concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self.
Hume's compatibilist theory of free will proved extremely influential on subsequent moral philosophy. He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles, and expounded the is–ought problem.
Hume has proved extremely influential on subsequent western philosophy, especially on utilitarianism, logical positivism, William James, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive philosophy, theology and other movements and thinkers. In addition, according to philosopher Jerry Fodor, Hume's Treatise is "the founding document of cognitive science". Hume engaged with contemporary intellectual luminaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Boswell, and Adam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy). Immanuel Kant credited Hume with awakening him from "dogmatic slumbers".
In light of Hume's central role in the Scottish Enlightenment, and in the history of Western philosophy, Bryan Magee judged him as a philosopher "widely regarded as the greatest who has ever written in the English language." While Hume failed in his attempts to start a university career, he took part in various diplomatic and military missions of the time. He wrote The History of England which became a bestseller, and it became the standard history of England in its day.
His empirical approach places him with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others at the time as a British Empiricist.
Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature. In opposition to the rationalists who preceded him, most notably René Descartes, he concluded that desire rather than reason governed human behaviour. He also argued against the existence of innate ideas, concluding that humans have knowledge only of things they directly experience. He argued that inductive reasoning and therefore causality cannot be justified rationally. Our assumptions in favour of these result from custom and constant conjunction rather than logic. He concluded that humans have no actual conception of the self, only of a bundle of sensations associated with the self.
Hume's compatibilist theory of free will proved extremely influential on subsequent moral philosophy. He was also a sentimentalist who held that ethics are based on feelings rather than abstract moral principles, and expounded the is–ought problem.
Hume has proved extremely influential on subsequent western philosophy, especially on utilitarianism, logical positivism, William James, the philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive philosophy, theology and other movements and thinkers. In addition, according to philosopher Jerry Fodor, Hume's Treatise is "the founding document of cognitive science". Hume engaged with contemporary intellectual luminaries such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, James Boswell, and Adam Smith (who acknowledged Hume's influence on his economics and political philosophy). Immanuel Kant credited Hume with awakening him from "dogmatic slumbers".
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
November 19, 2014
Reviewed in two halves:
Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding
Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
I thought this edition was quite nice, and if you appreciate footnotes in Latin and Greek you will no doubt like it even more than I did.
Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding
Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals
I thought this edition was quite nice, and if you appreciate footnotes in Latin and Greek you will no doubt like it even more than I did.
September 23, 2009
Empiricism in its purest distillation may be anathema to human nature, but the questions Hume raises regarding our ability to understand – and our claim to have knowledge of – absolute certainties, nevertheless form a basis why we seek to understand, and ultimately why we choose to believe we understand. Hume’s Dilemma has no answer, but its inherent contradiction does suggest the shortcomings of everything we claim to know – and in that sense, represents the most basic thing we may most accurately claim to know: Nothing. The Buddha had already addressed this quandary to the East, and later in the West, Existentialism, like Buddhism, sought a solution. Hume offers none, which makes his work difficult to accept... but crucial to comprehend.
January 5, 2021
It's been 25 years since I last read Hume's Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. I don't remember being all that engaged or impressed by it before. Nor is my old copy all that marked up. At the time I directed more attention and interest to the first enquiry.
But this time reading Hume I found it delightful. It is an enjoyable reading experience. Both enjoyable because engagingly well written and enjoyable intellectually, to reflect on the ideas presented.
I particularly liked Hume's emphasis on the pleasing social virtues that make life easier and more enjoyable. For instance, he describes entering a well-0rdered home as a guest and how the very site of the way the room is arranged and decorated "presents us with the pleasing ideas of ease, satisfaction, and enjoyment." Then the family enters and their "freedom, ease, confidence, and calm enjoyment" express their happiness and excite the sympathies of the guest, bringing the prospect of a joyful visit.
If you need a pick-me-up about positive emotions leading to a good social life, then take the time to read some Hume.
But this time reading Hume I found it delightful. It is an enjoyable reading experience. Both enjoyable because engagingly well written and enjoyable intellectually, to reflect on the ideas presented.
I particularly liked Hume's emphasis on the pleasing social virtues that make life easier and more enjoyable. For instance, he describes entering a well-0rdered home as a guest and how the very site of the way the room is arranged and decorated "presents us with the pleasing ideas of ease, satisfaction, and enjoyment." Then the family enters and their "freedom, ease, confidence, and calm enjoyment" express their happiness and excite the sympathies of the guest, bringing the prospect of a joyful visit.
If you need a pick-me-up about positive emotions leading to a good social life, then take the time to read some Hume.
January 16, 2018
If you only read a small portion of Hume, I recommend his essays ‘On Liberty and Necessity’, and ‘On Miracles’,—also, his first book in The Treatise on Human Nature. Reading more won’t hurt, but those are the immediately useful writings where he made a unique and lasting contribution to the questions we continue to ponder on God and causality.
November 18, 2024
Libro excepcional por lo que expone con relación a una epistemología que va dejando de lado la metafísica para la concreción del conocimiento humano. En particular la parte que tira a los milagros me pareció majestuosa, así como lo que concierne a la imaginación.
December 15, 2015
A really good read! There were moments where Hume would repeat himself a tad too much and he might have had some faulty logic with some of his ideas, but he's definitely entertaining (in that nerdy philosopher sort of way). If I could do an entire paper on this book without struggling, I know he must have done something right.
February 16, 2024
I tend to agree with Hume on most things, and usually employ his ideas about there being no true “self” in philosophical debates. But, in the same way that I admire John Locke for his tabula rasa (his idea that all people are born as a blank slate), I think this is where he struck gold and many of his other ideas are heavily problematic. In this text, he discusses the importance of benevolence and a multitude of other generally agreeable things. He’s anti-gossip, says our society is driven by mutual need, whatever. I’m going to get into the weeds of the things I don’t like about this text but know there’s a lot of good stuff too.
Starting off, Hume is a strong utilitarian and believes that beauty (and what we love and hate in general) is completely determined by utility. He extrapolates this idea to many problematic examples, such as women’s beauty coming from their ability to produce children and how this utility is the cause of their desirability. He describes this as a natural law of the world (it’s misogyny…). He says that women cheating is worse than men cheating because of the potential for pregnancy. He speaks about women in a really disgusting way and purely in terms of their utility for male enjoyment and childbirth. He then talks about how all beauty standards are born from utility. I do think there is some truth in this, but any rational person has to understand that beauty standards are ever-fluctuating, somewhat arbitrary, and extremely influenced by culture. Many of the societal beliefs he attributes to utility are really more about social customs and groupthink. Much of human behavior does not fit cleanly into Hume’s worldview, and definitely does not hold up in modern times.
He says that we should treat animals kindly because we are rational beings and they are not, then goes on to say that we should treat minorities (women and Native Americans) the same way. It was a different time but his comparison of minorities to animals is gross to me.
He does liken religious practices to superstition, and even mentions transubstantiation specifically, which I thought was pretty bold and I did like. His work was banned for his religious skepticism so he was doing some avant garde stuff here.
He goes on to talk about incest (the topics covered here are not great for a document about he source of morals!) and tries to explain how some incest is less incest-y than others.
He says erectile dysfunction is worse than infertility? These are things we can’t control.
Hume says that the source of morals is essentially what society thinks and deems useful. This is somewhat true, as what we think is moral evolves with our society. Hume is more interested in the source of morals than what is objectively moral, and spends a lot of the text discussing what generally pleases and displeases people. Reading this in the modern day was a good reminder of how what society deems as useful, beautiful, and moral is constantly being challenged. In class we had an interesting conversation about this, and it got me thinking about the evolution of feminism and how the ideas of gender may someday be completely dissolved (after a battle between the gender binary-ists and the gender dissolution-ists?) and modern day feminist texts may be considered offensive because they make distinctions between men and women. In the same way, the vegan movement may gain so much footing that many of my actions, such as eating fish, may be seen as immoral in the future. Said all that to say that Hume actually does present some valid and cutting edge (for the time) points in this text, and it is mostly soured by the changing morals of society which he could have never predicted. I suggest reading but skipping over the offensive things I have mentioned in this review.
Starting off, Hume is a strong utilitarian and believes that beauty (and what we love and hate in general) is completely determined by utility. He extrapolates this idea to many problematic examples, such as women’s beauty coming from their ability to produce children and how this utility is the cause of their desirability. He describes this as a natural law of the world (it’s misogyny…). He says that women cheating is worse than men cheating because of the potential for pregnancy. He speaks about women in a really disgusting way and purely in terms of their utility for male enjoyment and childbirth. He then talks about how all beauty standards are born from utility. I do think there is some truth in this, but any rational person has to understand that beauty standards are ever-fluctuating, somewhat arbitrary, and extremely influenced by culture. Many of the societal beliefs he attributes to utility are really more about social customs and groupthink. Much of human behavior does not fit cleanly into Hume’s worldview, and definitely does not hold up in modern times.
He says that we should treat animals kindly because we are rational beings and they are not, then goes on to say that we should treat minorities (women and Native Americans) the same way. It was a different time but his comparison of minorities to animals is gross to me.
He does liken religious practices to superstition, and even mentions transubstantiation specifically, which I thought was pretty bold and I did like. His work was banned for his religious skepticism so he was doing some avant garde stuff here.
He goes on to talk about incest (the topics covered here are not great for a document about he source of morals!) and tries to explain how some incest is less incest-y than others.
He says erectile dysfunction is worse than infertility? These are things we can’t control.
Hume says that the source of morals is essentially what society thinks and deems useful. This is somewhat true, as what we think is moral evolves with our society. Hume is more interested in the source of morals than what is objectively moral, and spends a lot of the text discussing what generally pleases and displeases people. Reading this in the modern day was a good reminder of how what society deems as useful, beautiful, and moral is constantly being challenged. In class we had an interesting conversation about this, and it got me thinking about the evolution of feminism and how the ideas of gender may someday be completely dissolved (after a battle between the gender binary-ists and the gender dissolution-ists?) and modern day feminist texts may be considered offensive because they make distinctions between men and women. In the same way, the vegan movement may gain so much footing that many of my actions, such as eating fish, may be seen as immoral in the future. Said all that to say that Hume actually does present some valid and cutting edge (for the time) points in this text, and it is mostly soured by the changing morals of society which he could have never predicted. I suggest reading but skipping over the offensive things I have mentioned in this review.
November 7, 2023
APENAS LIDO AS INVESTIGAÇÕES SOBRE O ENTENDIMENTO HUMANO.
"Satisfaz tua paixão pela ciência", diz ela, "mas cuida para que essa seja uma ciência humana, com direta relevância para a prática e a vida social. O pensamento abstruso e as investigações recônditas são por mim proibidos e severamente castigados com a pensativa tristeza que ensejam, com a infindável incerteza em que serás envolvido e com a fria recepção dedicada a tuas pretensas descobertas, quando comunicadas. Sê um filósofo, mas, em meio a toda tua filosofia, não deixes de ser um homem."
“O anatomista põe-nos diante dos olhos os objetos mais horrendos e desagradáveis, mas sua ciência é útil ao pintor para delinear até mesmo uma Vênus ou uma Helena.”
“Embora nosso pensamento pareça possuir essa liberdade ilimitada, um exame mais cuidadoso nos mostrará que ele está, na verdade, confinado a limites bastante estreitos, e que todo esse poder criador da mente consiste meramente na capacidade de compor, transpor, aumentar ou diminuir os materiais que os sentidos e a experiência nos fornecem.”
“Assim, o resultado de toda filosofia é a constatação da cegueira e debilidade humanas, com a qual deparamos por toda parte apesar de nossos esforços para evitá-la ou dela nos esquivarmos.”
“Assim como a paixão pela religião, a paixão pela filosofia, embora tenha por alvo a correção de nossa conduta e a extirpação de nossos vícios, parece sujeita ao inconveniente de que, pelo seu manejo imprudente, pode servir apenas para fortalecer uma inclinação que já predomina e arrastar a mente de forma ainda mais decidida para o lado que ja a atrai em demasia, em função das tendências e inclinaçõrs de nosso temperamento natural.”
“Embora não haja no mundo isso que se denomina acaso, nossa ignorância da causa real de um acontecimento qualquer tem a mesma influência que ele sobre o entendimento, e produz urna espécie semelhante de crença ou opinião.”
“Dessa teoria, alguns filósofos, e os antigos estóicos entre eles, derivaram um tema de consolação em meio a todas as aflições, ao ensinarem a seus discípulos que os ma- les dos quais padeciam eram, na realidade, bens para o universo, e que, visto de uma perspectiva mais ampla, capaz de abarcar o sistema da natureza como um todo, cada acontecimento se tornaria motivo de alegria e exultação. Mas, embora essas considerações sejam agradáveis e sublimes, logo se revelaram fracas e ineficazes na prática. Certamente iríamos antes irritar que apaziguar um homem que sofre as dores torturantes da gota ao louvarmos a retidão das leis gerais que produziram os humores malignos em seu corpo e os conduziram, através dos canais apropriados, aos tendões e nervos onde agora provocam aqueles agudos tormentos.”
“A eloqüência, quando levada a seu patamar mais alto, deixa pouco lugar à razão ou à reflexão, mas, dirigindo-se inteiramente à imaginação e aos afetos, cativa os ouvintes condescendentes e subjuga-lhes o entendimento.”
“Nossa sagrada religião está fundada na fé, não na razão, e uma forma segura de pô-la em risco é submetê-la a uma prova que ela não está de modo algum preparada para enfrentar.”
“Ex nihilo nihil fit!”
"Satisfaz tua paixão pela ciência", diz ela, "mas cuida para que essa seja uma ciência humana, com direta relevância para a prática e a vida social. O pensamento abstruso e as investigações recônditas são por mim proibidos e severamente castigados com a pensativa tristeza que ensejam, com a infindável incerteza em que serás envolvido e com a fria recepção dedicada a tuas pretensas descobertas, quando comunicadas. Sê um filósofo, mas, em meio a toda tua filosofia, não deixes de ser um homem."
“O anatomista põe-nos diante dos olhos os objetos mais horrendos e desagradáveis, mas sua ciência é útil ao pintor para delinear até mesmo uma Vênus ou uma Helena.”
“Embora nosso pensamento pareça possuir essa liberdade ilimitada, um exame mais cuidadoso nos mostrará que ele está, na verdade, confinado a limites bastante estreitos, e que todo esse poder criador da mente consiste meramente na capacidade de compor, transpor, aumentar ou diminuir os materiais que os sentidos e a experiência nos fornecem.”
“Assim, o resultado de toda filosofia é a constatação da cegueira e debilidade humanas, com a qual deparamos por toda parte apesar de nossos esforços para evitá-la ou dela nos esquivarmos.”
“Assim como a paixão pela religião, a paixão pela filosofia, embora tenha por alvo a correção de nossa conduta e a extirpação de nossos vícios, parece sujeita ao inconveniente de que, pelo seu manejo imprudente, pode servir apenas para fortalecer uma inclinação que já predomina e arrastar a mente de forma ainda mais decidida para o lado que ja a atrai em demasia, em função das tendências e inclinaçõrs de nosso temperamento natural.”
“Embora não haja no mundo isso que se denomina acaso, nossa ignorância da causa real de um acontecimento qualquer tem a mesma influência que ele sobre o entendimento, e produz urna espécie semelhante de crença ou opinião.”
“Dessa teoria, alguns filósofos, e os antigos estóicos entre eles, derivaram um tema de consolação em meio a todas as aflições, ao ensinarem a seus discípulos que os ma- les dos quais padeciam eram, na realidade, bens para o universo, e que, visto de uma perspectiva mais ampla, capaz de abarcar o sistema da natureza como um todo, cada acontecimento se tornaria motivo de alegria e exultação. Mas, embora essas considerações sejam agradáveis e sublimes, logo se revelaram fracas e ineficazes na prática. Certamente iríamos antes irritar que apaziguar um homem que sofre as dores torturantes da gota ao louvarmos a retidão das leis gerais que produziram os humores malignos em seu corpo e os conduziram, através dos canais apropriados, aos tendões e nervos onde agora provocam aqueles agudos tormentos.”
“A eloqüência, quando levada a seu patamar mais alto, deixa pouco lugar à razão ou à reflexão, mas, dirigindo-se inteiramente à imaginação e aos afetos, cativa os ouvintes condescendentes e subjuga-lhes o entendimento.”
“Nossa sagrada religião está fundada na fé, não na razão, e uma forma segura de pô-la em risco é submetê-la a uma prova que ela não está de modo algum preparada para enfrentar.”
“Ex nihilo nihil fit!”
May 8, 2023
Obra magna de la historia del pensamiento donde se ponen, justamente, límites al entendimiento y se elabora una epistemología empirista e inductivista.
Hume fundamenta la moral en el sentimiento -sin desdeñar tampoco la facultad del entendimiento pero dónde la última palabra la tiene aquel- cercana a la manera que tenemos a aprobar y reprochar acciones en la vida cotidiana. Critica aquellos sistemas éticos racionalistas que resultan engorrosos y abstrusos.
Obra genial para iniciarse en la filosofía pues los problemas que plantea Hume tienen vigencia a día de hoy además de estar muy bien escrito.
Hume fundamenta la moral en el sentimiento -sin desdeñar tampoco la facultad del entendimiento pero dónde la última palabra la tiene aquel- cercana a la manera que tenemos a aprobar y reprochar acciones en la vida cotidiana. Critica aquellos sistemas éticos racionalistas que resultan engorrosos y abstrusos.
Obra genial para iniciarse en la filosofía pues los problemas que plantea Hume tienen vigencia a día de hoy además de estar muy bien escrito.
Read
June 25, 2024assigned: sections 1-5, 7-8, 12
August 12, 2025
Un libro che ha risvegliato dal sonno dogmatico uno dei più grandi filosofi dell’umanità e che ha messo a dormire il sottoscritto nell’estate più calda della storia.
August 4, 2011
I find Hume to be one of the easiest philosophers to read and comprehend. This does, however, make him one of the easiest for me to find slight problems with; this does not, however, make him one of the most incorrect philosophers that I have read.
I think that Hume's problem is his adherence to Pyrrhonian skepticism. Crash course in one sentence: Pyrrhonian skeptics hold that we are to be in a state of perpetual inquiry toward the truth, and that we will likely never actually finish our quest. Hume takes this, but adds that we should focus on what is most useful and what is most popular. But what is most useful? What is popular. What is popular? What is most useful. I smell a circular argument brewing.
Other than that, there is a lot of good that Hume's philosophy brings about, and for that reason he is very important to read. If only he wasn't a Pyrrhonian ...
I think that Hume's problem is his adherence to Pyrrhonian skepticism. Crash course in one sentence: Pyrrhonian skeptics hold that we are to be in a state of perpetual inquiry toward the truth, and that we will likely never actually finish our quest. Hume takes this, but adds that we should focus on what is most useful and what is most popular. But what is most useful? What is popular. What is popular? What is most useful. I smell a circular argument brewing.
Other than that, there is a lot of good that Hume's philosophy brings about, and for that reason he is very important to read. If only he wasn't a Pyrrhonian ...
October 16, 2007
reading again, it's been perhaps three years since i first read this .. and i'll have to say that the content matures within you. revisiting any of hume's texts is a very good idea ... you often see how the concepts connect and apply to the progression of your life experience and perception .. but that's speakig broadly ... what do you think?
February 11, 2011
One of the most concise and easily understood complete works ever conceived. The British Empiricist mind is well structured and seeks at all times to include arguments that are persuasive and logical. A new favorite
October 5, 2016
Hume is very easy to read, at least for me, and that made him one of the easiest philosophers for me to discuss in class. Whether I agree with him or not (I still have issues with his reliance on what is popular), I always enjoy picking him up and reading his views.
April 20, 2008
An amazingly clear thinker. Added the reality concept of probability to philosophy and destroyed it forever.
October 12, 2008
The key work to understanding philosophical skepticism.
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September 23, 2010Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals by David Hume (1975)
April 30, 2011
This would be a great book were it not for the small but fatal fact that Hume's philosophy is entirely false.
September 6, 2013
Hume is a deceptively profound thinker. He writes with grace and ease, and even has a waspish sense of humour to boot.
September 11, 2013
I am skeptical about this
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July 25, 2015My senior seminar work back in college
January 18, 2017
Note: pick up this edition soon.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews