Wright is aware of his charge, and his book has several attractive features that should make it a suitable introduction to the Treatise. Volumes in this series assume 'no philosophical background knowledge' and should 'be suited to introductory university-level courses.' Each book is supposed to 'guide readers through the main arguments' of the philosophical text in question, while 'dealing with issues of interpretation.' They are also supposed to provide some insight into the relevant philosophical context within which the book was written as well as an appreciation of its reception. Hume was heavily influenced by empiricists John Locke and George Berkeley, along with various French-speaking writers such as Pierre Bayle, and various figures on the English-speaking intellectual landscape such as Isaac Newton, Samuel Clarke, Francis Hutcheson, and Joseph Butler.This book is a recent addition to Cambridge's 'Introductions to Key Philosophical Texts' series, which offers 'introductory textbooks' on philosophical classics. Instead, the best we can do is to apply the strongest explanatory and empirical principles available to the investigation of human mental phenomena, issuing in a quasi-Newtonian project, Hume's 'Science of Man'.

Hume's scepticism came in his rejection of this 'insight ideal', and the (usually rationalistic) confidence derived from it that the world is as we represent it. This doctrine was associated with a trust in the powers of human reason and insight into reality, which possessed God's certification. This philosophy partly consisted in rejection of the historically prevalent conception of human minds as being miniature versions of the divine mind. Hume was the first philosopher of the modern era to produce a naturalistic philosophy. His 'History of England' was the standard work on English history for many years, until Macaulay's 'The History of England from the Accession of James the Second'. Hume first gained recognition and respect as a historian, but academic interest in Hume's work has in recent years centered on his philosophical writing. He is an important figure in Western philosophy, and in the history of the Scottish Enlightenment. David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian.

Author of a treatise of human nature