Hume's 'A Treatise of Human Nature': An Introduction

by John P. Wright

Overview

David Hume's A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) presents the most important account of skepticism in the history of modern philosophy. In this lucid and thorough introduction to the work, John P. Wright examines the development of Hume's ideas in the Treatise, their relation to eighteenth-century theories of the imagination and passions, and the reception they received when Hume published the Treatise. He explains Hume's arguments concerning the inability of reason to establish the basic beliefs which underlie science and morals, as well as his arguments showing why we are nevertheless psychologically compelled to accept such beliefs. The book will be a valuable guide for those seeking to understand the nature of modern skepticism and its connection with the founding of the human sciences during the Enlightenment.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780511849695
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	11/26/2009
Series:	Cambridge Introductions to Key Philosophical Texts
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	435 KB

About the Author

John P. Wright is Professor of Philosophy at Central Michigan University, and was Visiting Professor in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh from 2004 to 2007. He is the author of The Sceptical Realism of David Hume (1983), and co-editor of Hume and Hume's Connexions (1994) and Psyche and Soma: Physicians and Metaphysicians on the Mind-Body Problem from Antiquity to Enlightenment (2000).

Table of Contents

Preface; 1. The author and the book; 2. First principles; 3. Causation; 4. Skepticism; 5. Determinism; 6. Passions, sympathy, and others' minds; 7. Motivation: reason and the calm passions; 8. Moral sense, reason, and moral skepticism; 9. The foundations of morals; Bibliography and further reading; Index.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Wright’s book is a good conventional philosophical introduction: we get a helpful and clear presentation and analysis of the central philosophical arguments presented in Hume’s Treatise.... The book is indeed useful for the purposes of philosophical introduction, if one wants to understand Hume in dialogue with the classical problems and authors of philosophy, and see his relevance for contemporary philosophical debates."
—Philosophy in Review, Tamás Demeter Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte

Editorial Reviews

"Wright’s book is a good conventional philosophical introduction: we get a helpful and clear presentation and analysis of the central philosophical arguments presented in Hume’s Treatise … The book is indeed useful for the purposes of philosophical introduction, if one wants to understand Hume in dialogue with the classical problems and authors of philosophy, and see his relevance for contemporary philosophical debates."
Philosophy in Review

"… a book that undergraduates will understand, learn much from, and enjoy reading, and it will be extremely helpful for existing undergraduate courses on the Treatise. The book is such that I hope it will be able not just to fit into current courses on Hume’s Treatise, but also help to shape future ones for the better … this is the best introduction to Hume’s Treatise available."
P. J. E. Kail, British Journal for the History of Philosophy

From the Publisher