A Treatise Of Human Nature Illustrated

A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) is a book by Scottish philosopher David Hume, considered by many to be Hume's most important work and one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. The Treatise is a classic statement of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. In the introduction Hume presents the idea of placing all science and philosophy on a novel foundation: namely, an empirical investigation into human nature. Impressed by Isaac Newton's achievements in the physical sciences, Hume sought to introduce the same experimental method of reasoning into the study of human psychology, with the aim of discovering the "extent and force of human understanding". Against the philosophical rationalists, Hume argues that the passions, rather than reason, govern human behaviour. He introduces the famous problem of induction, arguing that inductive reasoning and our beliefs regarding cause and effect cannot be justified by reason; instead, our faith in induction and causation is the result of mental habit and custom.

Excerpt from Human Nature Explained: A New Illustrated Treatise on Human Science for the People We can never deal effectually and properly with any of the great problems, such as capital and labor, social ethics, equal rights, education, religious liberty, or the unfortunate manifestations of human life, such as vice, intemperance, pauperism, insanity and crime until the masses of the people have a more thoroughand general knowledge of the impusles in human life from which all these conditions spring. In the evolution of society, social ethics are ever changing, public sentiment shifts its bearings, forms of government, political parties, reli gions beliefs, creeds and dogmas, spring into existance, rise to proportions of supremacy and power, serve their purpose, outlive their usefulness and then give way to let others succeed, but each and all are simply the out ward expressions of impulses inherent in human nature, to be found in every individual principles that are eternal with the gods. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

David Hume was one of the greatest figures in the Scottish Enlightenment. He worked as a philosopher, economist, historian, and publicist. Emmanuel Kant wrote that Hume's contemporaries misunderstood him and that Hume failed to find acceptance during his modern era. Nevertheless, Hume’s ideas greatly influenced German classical philosophy, evolutionary theory, and evolutionary sociology. His concept of empiricism and machismo were some of his most significant theories. Hume's philosophy is considered a turning point from classical philosophy to the non-classical models of our modern age. A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE AN ABSTRACT OF A BOOK LATELY PUBLISHED ENTITLED A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE ETC. ESSAYS, MORAL, POLITICAL, AND LITERARY A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN TO HIS FRIEND IN EDINBURGH AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING A TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE BEHAVIOURS AND CONDUCT OF ARCHIBALD STEWART LETTER TO THE AUTHOR OF THE DELINEATION OF THE NATURE AND OBLIGATION OF MORALITY SCOTTICISMS FOUR DISSERTATIONS THE HISTORY OF ENGLAND DIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGION

Nothing is more usual and more natural for those, who pretend to discover any thing new to the world in philosophy and the sciences, than to insinuate the praises of their own systems, by decrying all those, which have been advanced before them. And indeed were they content with lamenting that ignorance, which we still lie under in the most important questions, that can come before the tribunal of human reason, there are few, who have an acquaintance with the sciences, that would not readily agree with them. ’Tis easy for one of judgment and learning, to perceive the weak foundation even of those systems, which have obtained the greatest credit, and have carried their pretensions highest to accurate and profound reasoning. Principles taken upon trust, consequences lamely deduced from them, want of coherence in the parts, and of evidence in the whole, these are every where to be met with in the systems of the most eminent philosophers, and seem to have drawn disgrace upon philosophy itself. Nor is there requir’d such profound knowledge to discover the present imperfect condition of the sciences, but even the [ xviii ]rabble without doors may judge from the noise and clamour, which they hear, that all goes not well within. There is nothing which is not the subject of debate, and in which men of learning are not of contrary opinions. The most trivial question escapes not our controversy, and in the most momentous we are not able to give any certain decision. Disputes are multiplied, as if every thing was uncertain; and these disputes are managed with the greatest warmth, as if every thing was certain. Amidst all this bustle ’tis not reason, which carries the prize, but eloquence; and no man needs ever despair of gaining proselytes to the most extravagant hypothesis, who has art enough to represent it in any favourable colours. The victory is not gained by the men at arms, who manage the pike and the sword; but by the trumpeters, drummers, and musicians of the army.