Customer Reviews
Hume at his best - By: Kurt Messick, 23 Dec 2005 
David Hume was perhaps the leading lightin the Empiricist movementin philosophy. Empiricism is seenin distinction from Rationalism,in that it doubts the viability of universal principles (rational or otherwise), & uses sense data as the basis of all knowledge - experience is the source of knowledge. Hume was a skeptic as well as empiricist, & had radical (for the time) atheist ideas that often gotin the way of his professional advancement, but given his reliance on experience (and the kinds of experiences he had), his problem with much that was considered conventional was understandable.
Hume's major work, 'A Treatise of Human Nature', was not well received intially - according to Hume, 'it fell dead-born from the press'. Hume reworked the first part of this workin a more popular way for this text, which has become a standard, & perhaps the best introduction to Empiricism.
In a nutshell, the idea of empiricism is that experience teaches, & rules & understanding are derived from this. However, for Hume this wasn't sufficient. Just because billiard balls when striking always behavein a certain manner, or just because the sun always rosein the morning, there was no direct causal connection that could be automatically affirmed - we assume a necessary connection, but how can this be proved?
Hume's ideas impact not only metaphysics, but also epistemology & psychology. Hume develops empiricism to a point that empiricism is practically unsupportable (and it isin this regard that Kant sees this text as a very important piece, & works toward his synthesis of Empiricism & Rationalism). For Hume, empirical thought requires skepticism, but leaves it unresolved as far as what one then needs to accept with regard to reason & understanding. According to scholar Eric Steinberg, 'A view that pervades nearly all of Hume's philosophical writings is that both ancient & modern philosophers have been guilty of optimistic & exaggerated claims for the power of human reason.'
Some have seen Hume as presenting a fundamental mistrust of daily belief while recognising that we cannot escape from some sort of framework; others have seen Hume as working toward a more naturalist paradigm of human understanding. In fact, Hume is open to a number of different interpretations, & these different interpretations have been taken up by subsequent philosphers to develop areas of synthetic philosophical ideas, as well as further developments more directly out of Empiricism (such as Phenomenology).
This isin fact a rather short book, a mere 100 pages or soin many editions. As a primer for understanding Hume, the British Empiricists (who include Hobbes, Locke, & Berkeley), as well as the major philosphical concerns of the eighteenth century, this is a great text with which to start.
A MILESTONE FOR EMPIRICISTS - By: Luciano Lupini, 30 Oct 2002 The first but fundamental book published by Humein 3 volumes (1 & 2in 1739; 3in 1740) dedicated to the methodical study of knowledge, passions, through experience & practical observation. It is with Hume that empiricism (following Locke & Berkeley) reaches its complete expression as a "modern" classical system, against previous dogmatic visions of philosophy. According to Kant, Hume awoke him from the dogmatic dream......
With Hume, english illustration comes to a definitive expression. Through his opus, empiricism is systematized & acquires a new dimension that expands its influence on all fields of philosophy. Previous conceptions about the theory of knowledge, ethics, politics, esthetics, & the philosophy of religion, all are transformed or renovated by Hume. In spite of his critics, Hume's system dwelled with different topics of modern interest: positivism, psychology, nominalism, critical skepticism, determinism, agnosticism, moral philosophy, political economy, etc.
No serious philosopher after Hume, has been able to avoid a careful look at his system. So if you are a student or scholar of the subject matter, I highly recommend this edition of Hume's seminal work.
A CLASSIC TEXT BY THE GREATEST OF THE EMPIRICISTS - By: Luciano Lupini, 23 Oct 2002 This is a fair edition of the first but fundamental book published by Humein 3 volumes (1 & 2in 1739; 3in 1740) dedicated to the methodical study of knowledge, passions & moral, through experience & practical observation. It is with Hume that empiricism (following Locke & Berkeley) reaches its complete expression as a "modern" classical system, against previous dogmatic visions of philosophy. According to Kant, Hume awoke him from the dogmatic dream......
With Hume, english illustration comes to a definitive expression. Through his opus, empiricism is systematized & acquires a new dimension that expands its influence on all fields of philosophy. Previous conceptions about the theory of knowledge, ethics, politics, esthetics, & the philosophy of religion, all are transformed or renovated by Hume. In spite of his critics, Hume's system dwelled with different topics of modern interest: positivism, psychology, nominalism, critical skepticism, determinism, agnosticism, moral philosophy, political economy, etc.
No serious philosopher after Hume, has been able to avoid a careful look at his system. So if you are a student or scholar of the subject matter, I highly recommend Hume's seminal work.
5 stars for the Hume's words, 4 stars for the Oxford edition - By: , 27 Mar 2002 
Bound by necessity to start with the evident, I must say that Hume's Enquiry constitutes indeed a display of philosophical genius. Definitely a far more mature work than his Treatise on Human Nature (of which the reading I nevertheless do recommend), its principal qualities are its rigor of structure, the solidity of its arguments & the eloquent style through which Hume captivates the readerin such a way that the density of content is hardly perceptible.
Yet beware, as even though the style is to be revered,in the domain of philosophy it is the quality of content that constitutes the main criterion for judging a text. Yet neitherin this sphere does Hume leave anything to be desired.
The leading thread of the argumentation is Hume's conception of the process of knowledge acquisition, but all through the book you'll find passages dealing with a variety of topics, from "writing theory" to 18th century theology & ethical debates.
On the first section Hume distinguishes between two types of philosophy, the distinction of which is based more on the style that characterises each of them & to the public they are addressed to than on their content.
The sections from two to five present a concise presentation of Hume's empiricist conception of the process of learning, which owes much to Locke's views on the topic (see Locke, an Essay Concerning Human Understanding) but can be said to constitute an "improvement" on his predecessor's thought.
Sections six to nine also deal with Hume's conception of learning & human knowledge, but this part differs from the previous one (sections two to five)in that it no longer consists on an explanation of the process of acquisition of knowledge, but rather of the consequences of this process. Putin a different way, sections two to five are a presentation of the genealogy of human knowledge, while sections six to nine deal more with the implications of such a genealogy. Sections ten & eleven are a presentation of the idea that religion & religious beliefs are not rational. This part has the aim not of discrediting religion, but rather of showing that it cannot be founded on reason, only on faith, & so that reasonable knowledge cannot be foundedin religion, but onlyin reason & matter of fact.
Finally, section twelve is a presentation of the kind of scepticism to which Hume adheres on the basis of his conception of human knowledge & its boundaries.
As I said, to Hume's text I give five stars, but to edition itself I'm tempted to give three. I actually hesitate between three & four. The actual physical book is wonderful: excellent paper & ink quality, very nice typography, extremely useful numbering of the paragraphs (for those who really want to explore the text & its internal structure & articulations).
My main problem is actually that Oxford University Press of course a prestigious editing house, so I expected the most brilliant & enlightening notes, & was hence somewhat deceived (but should I give it only three stars simply because it being Oxford my expectations were higher than they would have been had it been published by a smaller editing house? -I'm tempted to say yes.
Do not get me wrong, its not that the notes are entirely useless, but they are somewhat basic to readers with a philosophical formation (even a basic one, as mine is), & some of the notes are even there only to explain the meaning of non-philosophical terms that even I, as a non-native English speaker, could understand.
Nevertheless, & on a more positive note, it does have an extensive introduction that, though somewhat basic, can still be useful. Thus I reconsider & change my mind. I give the text 5 stars. To the Oxford Edition,in terms of content 4 stars, &in terms of material/physical quality 5 stars.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. - By: , 14 Jun 1999 This contains " Hume's doctrine of Causality," alluded toin " Liber OS ABYSMI vel DAATH " of Aleister Crowley: the latter short essay encompasses a revolutionary technique to end the reason,in that doing so it [i.e. the reason] may be overcome by the penetrating Higher Faculties. This is the ultimate text-book of Scepticism, portraying an essence of outsanding literary style, envelopedin blissful, abounding philosophies, not to be taken lightly. One should absorb the massive meaning of the entire book, than assimilate its meaning into one's everyday habit-universe, life-style, or reality-tunnel (or perhaps one has their own name for the same proposition, the arisen definition would be: the wayin which the Universe appears through the choices one has made of existing, that have presently become automatic). In this way one will become unto Hume's philosophies -- rather than merely contemplating, as the vulgar mind usually chooses to do.
