An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading): and Selections from A Treatise of Human Nature »

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is the thesis of a thinker who was a scientist, psychologist, metaphysician, and skeptic who continues to fascinate contemporary minds. The product of both youthful fire and mature consideration, the Enquiry, "contain[s] everything of Consequence relating to the understanding." In the face of skepticism, the Enquiry offered progress based on experience. In a time of dogmatism, the Enquiry dissected the basis of religious faith and delivered a still-powerful critique. It endeavors to be nothing less than the construction of an anatomy of human nature. \ \

About the Author
David Hume was born on April 26, 1711, and grew up in Ninewells and Edinburgh, Scotland. His widowed mother educated her "uncommonly wake-minded" son until he enrolled at age eleven at the University of Edinburgh, where he initially considered a career in law. At fifteen years old, he left the university to answer inner questions of theology and metaphysics. Among his friends were notables Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), Adam Smith (1723-90), and James Boswell (1740-95). After his death, others including Auguste Comte (1798-1857), Charles Darwin (1809-82), and Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) admitted admiration for his writings. \