An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

At the time that Hume was writing, the intellectual world had been in upheaval for some time. Political and philosophical commitments were shifting rapidly. The works of the mathematician, philosopher, and metaphysician René Descartes had been circulating for the better part of half a century. The Enlightenment, which prevailed in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, was in full swing. The Enlightenment centered around the elevation of reason over faith and superstition. The Scottish Enlightenment, of which Hume is considered a founding personage, was centered largely in Edinburgh where Hume lived and worked. It entailed the rapid development of and investigation into new sciences and fields of knowledge. Hume based a large part of his philosophical system on the emerging consensus in parts of academia that all phenomena have purely material causes.

In Scotland—where Hume lived—the Enlightenment movement disagreed with many tenets of Scottish Presbyterianism and Calvinism. This in large part inspired Hume’s concern with miracles and the question of God in relation to human action and morals. It explains why his work and reputation were considered to be outside the mainstream at the start of his career.