An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

David Hume 1748

These philosophical essays examine how people gain knowledge through experience and habit. A famous discussion asks whether reports of miracles can outweigh our experience of how nature works.

169 pages 3h 16m reading time

A founding work of modern philosophy and one of the most widely read books on how we know things.
Argues that we never actually see one thing cause another, and that we expect the future to resemble the past only out of habit, not because reason proves it.
Urges readers to doubt any book or idea that cannot be backed by either math or real-world evidence, famously saying such works should be "committed to the flames."
Its puzzle about whether past experience can justify beliefs about the future, now called "the problem of induction," is still debated by philosophers and scientists today.
Immanuel Kant said that reading Hume woke him from his "dogmatic slumber" (his settled, unquestioned beliefs), which led him to rethink philosophy from the ground up.

Rescued from a flop

Hume rewrote it from his earlier "Treatise of Human Nature," which he said "fell dead-born from the press."
Miracles essay held back

Hume first cut his argument about miracles from the earlier book, fearing it would offend religious readers.
First had another title

It first appeared as "Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding" and only later took its famous name.
Ignored at first

Hume complained that when it came out, readers ignored it and argued over another writer's book instead.
Banned by the Church

In 1761 the Catholic Church added all of Hume's works to its list of forbidden books.