This book just didn't really impress me because a lot of it seemed sort of trivial. It is possible that his discussion of causality was novel and powerful when it was written (though I have my doubts about that, because I feel like i have read philosophers who addressed the questions earlier), but here it just seems like he's putting forward some facts. It was a "definition book" in the sense that he described something, gave it a one word definition, and moved on. ( )

Hume's goal is to be trivial. He has some pretty interesting arguments, but gases his arguments up so much. We can see the influence his arguments had on philosophy in its postmodern influence. It is very conservative and can be hard to read. His philosophy is essentially to just be common sense and intuitive. It is also very repetitive and literary. ( )

One of the best-known modern philosophers wrote his masterpiece at a young age, it wasn’t well received at the time and to being important to Western philosophy, and so David Hume decided to do something to get his thoughts talked about. Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two pieces that Hume wrote from sections of his most famous work to enlarge and make them well known thus putting his name out into the philosophical community.

The two Enquiries are essentially extracts and revisions of sections from his A Treatise of Human Nature, his anonymously published most important work that was not received well and very long. In all honestly, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding was to me were words that signified nothing. Every statement and argument Hume put forward neither interested me nor really was convincing and his section “On Miracles” was nothing more than a circular argument that just wasted my time. An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals was not much better, while I understood Hume’s thinking, I just didn’t understand the reason for the entire piece existing and frankly the four Appendixes that were attached where the best part of what Hume wrote. The publishers decided to include A Dialogue in the book, and it was probably the best piece in the entire book as I took it as satire and if not, I don’t care because those 20 pages were better than the previous 326. Frankly I had hoped for Hume to contrast or compliment John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding and while I felt Locke was a bit bloated, at least I cared about what he wrote unlike Hume.

Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals are two of David Hume’s work combined in the same book, I read them and felt like I wasted my time. ( )

Extremely interesting philosophical discussion regarding epistemology and theory of knowledge. Quite modern for having been written in mid 1700s. ( )

O clássico ágil e agradável de Hume, no qual argumenta que todo conhecimento é derivado da experiência e que a causalidade é melhor entendida quando assumimos que ela resulta de uma disposição a ligar regularidades observáveis e a partir daí traçar expectativas. A partir disso, segue seu projeto crítico, que eventualmente acordara Kant de seu sono dogmático: hipóteses e especulações que falham em manter-se dentro do que o ser humano pode conhecer, que não reconhecem sua natureza, suas propensões (os princípios associativos da semelhança, contiguidade e causação, a força fixadora do hábito); enfim, acabam alimentando superstições e preconceitos. As ideias devem reportar-se a fenômenos, fatos observáveis, podendo ser analisadas até chegarem às experiências que as fundam, que reportam dos efeitos às causas. As relações de ideias reportam-se as questões de fato. O modo como o mundo é e o modo como somos deve regular o que podemos saber a priori. Hume critica o ocasionalismo por este invocar o fantasioso - Deus, para resolver os problemas, mas entende que as coisas seguem por conjunção e não conexão necessária: tampouco há algo como um poder que explicaria o que nossa natureza fornece. Ao investir contra esses desvios da razão, que lança-se além do mundo, Hume aborda o testemunho dos milagres (que temos sempre bons motivos para duvidar), o livre arbítrio (que é compatível com por existe por necessidade, pela construção de hábitos e avaliação das ações a partir deles; a negação de um poder causal exterior de qq forma, impede a ideia que a necessidade é uma força paralisante ou que nos força a algo) e o desenho inteligente (e seu caráter quimérico). ( )