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jvanwagoner 's review for:
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
by David Hume
challenging
reflective
This Kindle edition is from a 1902 printing (a 2nd edition) reprinted from the posthumous edition of 1777. It includes endnotes and an extensive index by LA Selby-Bigge, a late University College, Oxford fellow. Note that Hume is Scottish and wrote the book initially in English.
I have always been interested in philosophy and history and finally got around to reading this foundational work. The title describes what this book is about. Hume starts by briefly introducing philosophy and then jumps into the main questions. The biggie is where ideas come from. How do we understand things? What is instinct, inspiration? Interestingly, his answers to these questions still hold up well to modern thought.
Hume wrote this book at a time and place when Calvinism still held great sway, and people thought God was behind every thought and action. As a result, his ideas were radical, and I was interested to see how he delicately handled ideas that would offend many of his readers.
I highly recommend this seminal work to anyone interested in philosophy who enjoys stretching their minds. This book is something I will refer to often. I continue to enjoy the access my Kindle gives me to great classics like this.
I originally wrote this review on 9/30/2010.
I have always been interested in philosophy and history and finally got around to reading this foundational work. The title describes what this book is about. Hume starts by briefly introducing philosophy and then jumps into the main questions. The biggie is where ideas come from. How do we understand things? What is instinct, inspiration? Interestingly, his answers to these questions still hold up well to modern thought.
Hume wrote this book at a time and place when Calvinism still held great sway, and people thought God was behind every thought and action. As a result, his ideas were radical, and I was interested to see how he delicately handled ideas that would offend many of his readers.
I highly recommend this seminal work to anyone interested in philosophy who enjoys stretching their minds. This book is something I will refer to often. I continue to enjoy the access my Kindle gives me to great classics like this.
I originally wrote this review on 9/30/2010.