A Treatise of Human Nature by David Hume
"A Treatise of Human Nature" by David Hume is a philosophical work published between 1739-40. Inspired by Newton's scientific achievements, Hume seeks to apply experimental methods to human psychology. He argues that passions, not reason, drive human behavior and that our beliefs about cause and effect rest on habit rather than logic. Hume presents the famous problem of induction, defends sentiment-based morality, and controversially declares that "reason is, and ought only to
be the slave to the passions." This foundational text challenges rationalist philosophy through empirical investigation. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Hume, David, 1711-1776 |
|---|---|
| Title | A Treatise of Human Nature |
| Note | Wikipedia page about this book: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Treatise_of_Human_Nature |
| Credits | Col Choat and David Widger |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 47.0 (College-level). Difficult to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | B: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion |
| Subject | Knowledge, Theory of |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 4705 |
| Release Date | Dec 1, 2003 |
| Most Recently Updated | Jun 10, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 5887 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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