David Hume: An Enquiry on Human Understanding
About the event
What Can We Know?
David Hume (1711 – 1776), a philosopher, a polymath, and an admired and reviled character, was perhaps the most significant figure of the Scottish Enlightenment. He is traditionally taught as part of a “three-pack” of British empiricists to include Locke and Berkeley. Hume wrote about a wide range of philosophical topics, to include the foundations of human knowledge, religion, and ethics. In his lifetime, he earned a greater popularity through his work “A History of England.” Three hundred years after his birth, Hume’s influence is felt throughout Anglophone philosophy, most especially in epistemology. Hume has also had a profound impact on 20th century philosophy of language and philosophy of science. Hume’s work was credited as an influence by Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. And, of course, he was the one to wake Kant from his “dogmatic slumber.”
We will be reading "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" published in 1748 as a revision of Hume's earlier treatise written in the 1730s (“A Treatise of Human Nature”). In this concise, “get-to-the-point” book, Hume explores fundamental questions about human knowledge: how ideas arise from sensory impressions, why thoughts connect in certain patterns, and whether experience can truly justify our beliefs about cause and effect. This work remains a foundational text in philosophy and offers strong analytical tools to help us make sense of our world.
Reading: David Hume, “[An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding](https://hackettpublishing.com/philosophy/an-enquiry-concerning-human-understanding),” 1993 Hackett Edition, edited by Eric Steinberg, 151 pages.
Recommended Optional Sources: David Hume, “[An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding](https://ia802802.us.archive.org/35/items/e%20nquiryconcernin01hume/enquiryconcernin01hume.pdf),” 1900 Internet Archives edition, 250 pages. Includes “Life of David Hume Esq. Written by Himself.”
Podcast Episodes: BBC Radio. [In Our Time: Philosophy / David Hume](https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015cpfp), Released on October 6, 2011.
Partially Examined Life / [Hume’s Empiricism: What Can We Know? Episode 17](https://partiallyexaminedlife.com/2010/03/29/episode-17-humes-empiricism-what-can-we-know/), released on March 29, 2010.
Lecture on Hume’s Epistemology by Dr. Darren Staloff, [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_npDteTUFo0)
