An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Description

David Hume is seen by many today as one of the greatest philosophers who have ever written in English, as well as among the most influential philosophers in history. His take on philosophical empiricism and skepticism is depicted extremely clearly in this Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – a well-written counterpart to Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature – his most famous philosophical work.

Placing himself in opposition with many of the rational thinkers of the day, including Descartes, Hume is known for upholding the values of empiricism and being one of the most influential philosophers who considered that desire should be held in much higher regard when compared to ration, claiming that even the idea of the “self” is, in fact, merely a conjunction of cause and effect that leads to empirical sensations about a perceived self.

Such thoughts are clearly defined in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume also touching upon the bigger issues of where ideas come from, how intuition fits into the puzzle and how instinct, inspiration and understanding really work. His insightful answers when it comes to these issues are still upheld as valid by modern-day thinkers.

Although having written this remarkable book in a time when Calvinism and Rationalism were the main belief systems that most thinkers wanted to be associated with, and so his fame did not reach as far as he may have wanted it to, he and his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding were still a strong influence on both contemporary and upcoming philosophers, Kant himself having admitted that Hume managed to take him out of his initial “dogmatic slumbers.”


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