An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (Squashed Edition) - Hume, David

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Résumé :
The Squashed edition of 'An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding' by David Hume. Abridged from the original text to read in an hour or so. Born in 1711 to a prosperous Scottish family, David studied Philosophy at Edinburgh University and might well have been set for high state office or a leading position in academic philosophy, had not his lifelong atheism intimidated the establishment. The central themes of the book are that very little of what we think we know can actually be derived from any idea that there are actual necessary connections between observed phenomena. We assume that certain things are connected just because they commonly occur together, but a genuine knowledge of any connection is mere habit of thought. So, a severe skepticism is the only rational view of the world. Mr Hume is an engaging writer, so I hope I've captured as much of his style as possible. Fortunately for the editor, Mr Hume is also extraordinarily fond of repeating the same points over and over, giving long-winded explanations and a dozen examples where one or two would do. So, it has been no particularly difficult task to squash 52,000 words down to 6500 while retaining the charm of eighteenth century Scots spellings and punctuation. Glyn Hughes Squashed editions are precise abridgements - the original ideas, in their own words, the full beam of the book, the quotable quotes and all the famous lines, but neatly honed down to the length of a readable short story. Like reading the bible without all the begats - Prof. Jim Curtis

Biographie:
David Home, a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, economist, librarian, and essayist who lived from 7 May 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) to 25 August 1776, was most recognized today for his very important school of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Hume worked to establish a naturalistic science of man that looked at the psychological underpinnings of human nature, starting with A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-1740). Hume contended that there are no inborn notions and that all human understanding comes only through experience. As an empiricist, he is so grouped with Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and George Berkeley. Inductive reasoning and the notion of causation, according to Hume, cannot be supported by logic; rather, they are the products of mental habits and custom. Due to the induction problem, it is impossible to provide the basis for the premise that the future will resemble the past, which is required in order to draw any causal conclusions from the past. Hume also rejected the idea that people have a true sense of who they are, asserting that what we actually experience is a collection of sensations and that the self is nothing more than this collection of causally related experiences.

Sommaire:
David Hume (7 May 1711 NS - 25 August 1776) was a Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, student of history, economist, librarian, and writer. He is most popular for his profoundly persuasive philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. argued against the presence of intrinsic thoughts, positing that all human information derives solely from experience. He studied philosophy at the College of Edinburgh at an abnormally early age of 12 or 13. Hume never wedded and resided partly at his Berwickshire home in Chirnside, which had a place with his family beginning around 1604. Hume's doctor determined him to have the Sickness of the Learned after he created scurvy and different maladies. He was secretary to General James St Clair, who was an emissary to Turin and Vienna. Hume wrote A Treatise of Human Nature in 1738 and The History of England in 1754. In 1745, during the Jacobite risings, Hume mentored the Marquess of Annandale (1720-92), an engagement that finished in confusion. He is viewed as one of the main philosophers to write in English. The David Hume Tower, a University of Edinburgh building, was renamed in a protest over his writing on race....