An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, published by David Hume in 1748, is a central work of the Scottish Enlightenment. In clear, elegant prose Hume examines the origins of human ideas, the nature of cause and effect, and the limits of reason, arguing that much of what we take for knowledge rests on custom and habit rather than logical necessity.
His famous discussion of induction and his sceptical analysis of miracles provoked lasting debate and influenced philosophers from Kant onward. The Enquiry distils Hume’s empiricism into an accessible form. This free EPUB edition presents the complete text for readers exploring eighteenth-century philosophy and the history of ideas.