Most of the principles, and reasonings, contained in this volume, were published in a work in three volumes, called A Treatise of Human Nature: a work which the Author had projected before he left College, and which he wrote and published not long after. In the Author's introduction to the former, Hume wrote: However, the public in Britain at the time did not agree, nor in the end did Hume himself agree, reworking the material in both An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). Hume also offers a sceptical theory of personal identity and a compatibilist account of free will.Ĭontemporary philosophers have written of Hume that 'no man has influenced the history of philosophy to a deeper or more disturbing degree', and that Hume's Treatise is 'the founding document of cognitive science' and the 'most important philosophical work written in English'. Hume defends a sentimentalist account of morality, arguing that ethics is based on sentiment and the passions rather than reason, and famously declaring that 'reason is, and ought only to be the slave to the passions'.

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 caused by mental habit and custom. Against the philosophical rationalists, Hume argues that the passions, rather than reason, cause human behaviour. 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'. In the introduction Hume presents the idea of placing all science and philosophy on a novel foundation: namely, an empirical investigation into human nature. The Treatise is a classic statement of philosophical empiricism, scepticism, and naturalism.

A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects (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.

A treatise of human nature author