TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE, A

A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40) is Hume's comprehensive attempt to base philosophy on an observationally grounded study of human nature. The text explains how we form such concepts as cause and effect, external existence, and personal identity,and to form beliefs in the entities represented by these concepts. It then offers an account of the passions, explains freedom and necessity as they apply to human choices and actions, and concludes with an explanation of how we distinguish between virtue and vice and of the different kinds of virtue. Also included in this volume is Hume's abstract of the Treatise, which outlines his core argument regarding our conception of, and belief in, cause and effect.