A Treatise of Human Nature

David Hume’s A Treatise of Human Nature was first published in 1740. Although the book did not sell well on its release, it became one of the key texts of the Enlightenment. It was especially known for its argument that human knowledge is based on direct experience and observation—a school of philosophy known as empiricism—and that human behavior is not based on reason, but on emotions. Divided into three books, A Treatise of Human Nature explores Hume’s initial ideas about the processes of human understanding, the nature of emotions and passions, and the structures of human morality. Hume eventually returned to these topics, offering revised and expanded ideas in his works An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748) and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). Hume’s ideas influenced numerous philosophers during his own time and afterward, including Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Arthur Schopenhauer, and Karl Marx, amongst many others.

This guide uses the Penguin Classics edition.

Summary

Book 1 is titled “On The Understanding.” The focus is on the fundamentals of not just how people learn, but how they process the world around them and their own thoughts and attitudes.