A Treatise of Human Nature

First published 1739–40 · the first edition (1739–40), with Hume's corrections

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contents

My design in the present work is sufficiently explain’d in the introduction. The reader must only observe, that all the subjects I have…

Nothing is more usual and more natural for those, who pretend to discover any thing new to the world in philosophy and the sciences, than…

Book 1: Of the understanding

Of ideas, their origin, composition, connexion, abstraction, &c.

All the perceptions of the human mind resolve themselves into two distinct kinds, which I shall call Impressions and Ideas. The difference…

Of the ideas of space and time

Whatever has the air of a paradox, and is contrary to the first and most unprejudic’d notions of mankind is often greedily embrac’d by…

Of knowledge and probability

There are seven different kinds of philosophical relation, viz. resemblance, identity, relations of time and place, proportion in quantity…

Of the sceptical and other systems of philosophy

In all demonstrative sciences the rules are certain and infallible; but when we apply them, our fallible and uncertain faculties are very…

Book 2: Of the passions

Of pride and humility

As all the perceptions of the mind may be divided into impressions and ideas, so the impressions admit of another division into original…

Of love and hatred

’Tis altogether impossible to give any definition of the passions of love and hatred; and that because they produce merely a simple…

Of the will and direct passions

We come now to explain the direct passions, or the impressions, which arise immediately from good or evil, from pain or pleasure. Of this…

Book 3: Of morals

Advertisement to Book III

I think it proper to inform the public, that tho’ this be a third volume of the Treatise of Human Nature, yet ’tis in some measure…

Of virtue and vice in general

There is an inconvenience which attends all abstruse reasoning, that it may silence, without convincing an antagonist, and requires the…

Of justice and injustice

I have already hinted, that our sense of every kind of virtue is not natural; but that there are some virtues, that produce pleasure and…

Of the other virtues and vices

We come now to the examination of such virtues and vices as are entirely natural, and have no dependance on the artifice and contrivance of…

There is nothing I wou’d more willingly lay hold of, than an opportunity of confessing my errors; and shou’d esteem such a return to truth…

An Abstract of a Book lately Published, entituled, A Treatise of Human Nature, &c.

My expectations in this small performance may seem somewhat extraordinary, when I declare that my intentions are to render a larger work…

about this work

A Treatise of Human Nature (1739–40) is a book by Scottish philosopher David Hume, considered by many to be Hume's most important work and one of the most influential works in the history of philosophy. The Treatise is a classic statement of philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. In the introduction Hume presents the idea of placing all science and philosophy on a novel foundation: namely, an empirical investigation into human nature.

The text is that of the first edition, with the corrections Hume made himself: the ERRATA, the Appendix of 1740 (its additions inserted where he directed), and his handwritten corrections; with the Abstract (1740).

details

Author: David Hume
Published: 1739–40
Collection: Early Modern Philosophy
Topics: Philosophy
Chapters: 15

cite this work

Hume, David. A Treatise of Human Nature. 1739–40. The first edition (1739–40), with Hume's corrections. Textpedia. www.textpedia.org/works/a-treatise-of-human-nature