It is nothing less than an attempt to extend the Copernican Revolution to philosophy to put to the test of
experience a complete system of the moral sciences which had hitherto gone unquestioned. But Hume was no rationalist:
from his viewpoint of informed scepticism he could see man not as a religious creation, nor as a machine, but as
a creature dominated by sentiment, passion and appetite. With justice Sir Isaiah Berlin has written of him: No
man has influenced the history of philosophy to a deeper or more disturbing degree.
Table of Contents
PART 1: INTRODUCTORY MATERIAL How to Use this Book
List of Abbreviations
Editor's Introduction
Hume's Early Years and Education
A Treatise of Human Nature
The Experimental Method and the Science of Human Nature
BOOK I: OF THE UNDERSTANDING
The Elements of the Mental World
Perceptions
Relations
Abstract Ideas
The Ideas of Space and Time
Knowledge, Probability, Belief, and Causation
Relations Revisited
The Relation of Causation
Causes and Causal Reasoning
Experience and Belief
Belief in the Uniformity of Nature
The Idea of Necessary Connection
Forms of Scepticism
External Objects
Enduring Selves and Personal Identity
The Conclusion of Book 1
BOOK 2: OF THE PASSIONS
The Productive Passions
The Responsive Passions
The Indirect Passions of Pride and Humility
The 'very essence' of Virtue and Beauty
Unexercised Powers
Sympathy
The Indirect Passions of Love and Hatred
Passions and the Principles of Association
The Compound Passions
Passions and Relations
Dispositions
The Direct Passions and the Will
The Will and its Influences
The Direct Passions
BOOK 3: OF MORALS
The Source of Moral Distinctions
The Failure of Reason
Moral Sentiments
The Artificial Virtues
Motives and Moral Qualities
Justice
Additional Artificial Virtues
Natural Virtues and Natural Abilities
Natural Virtues
Natural Abilities
The Conclusion of Book 3
The Abstract and the Early Reception of the Treatise
Supplementary Reading
A Note on the Texts of this Edition
PART 2: THE TEXT A TREATISE OF HUMAN NATURE
BOOK I. OF THE UNDERSTANDING
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Introduction
Of ideas, their origin, composition, connexion, abstraction, &c.
Of the origin of our ideas
Division of the subjects
Of the ideas of the memory and imagination
Of the connexion or association of ideas
Of relations
Of modes and substances
Of abstract ideas
Of the ideas of space and time
Of the infinite divisibility of our ideas of space and time
Of the infinite divisibility of space and time
Of the other qualities of our ideas of space and time
Objections answer'd
The same subject continu'd
Of the idea of existence, and of external existence
Of knowledge and probability
Of knowledge
Of probability; and of the idea of cause and effect
Why a cause is always necessary
Of the component parts of our reasonings concerning cause and effect
Of the impressions of the senses and memory
Of the inference from the impression to the idea
Of the nature of the idea or belief
Of the causes of belief
Of the effects of other relations and other habits
Of the influence of belief
Of the probability of chances
Of the probability of causes
Of unphilosophical probability
Of the idea of necessary connexion
Rules by which to judge of causes and effects
Of the reason of animals
Of the sceptical and other systems of philosophy
Of scepticism with regard to reason
Of scepticism with regard to the senses
Of the antient philosophy
Of the modern philosophy
Of the immateriality of the soul
Of personal identity
Conclusion of this book
BOOK 2. OF THE PASSIONS
Of pride and humility
Division of the subject
Of pride and humility; their objects and causes
Whence these objects and causes are deriv'd
Of the relations of impressions and ideas
Of the influence of these relations on pride and humility Limitations of this system
Of vice and virtue
Of beauty and deformity
Of external advantages and disadvantages
Of property and riches
Of the love of fame
Of the pride and humility of animals
Of love and hatred
Of the objects and causes of love and hatred
Experiments to confirm this system
Difficulties solv'd
Of the love of relations
Of our esteem for the rich and powerful
Of benevolence and anger
Of compassion
Of malice and envy
Of the mixture of benevolence and anger with compassion and malice
Of respect and contempt
Of the amorous passion, or love betwixt the sexes
Of the love and hatred of animals
Of the will and direct passions
Of liberty and necessity
The same subject continu'd
Of the influencing motives of the will
Of the causes of the violent passions
Of the effects of custom
Of the influence of the imagination on the passions
Of contiguity and distance in space and time
The same subject continu'd
Of the direct passions
Of curiosity, or the love of truth
BOOK 3. OF MORALS
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Of virtue and vice in general
Moral distinctions not deriv'd from reason
Moral distinctions deriv'd from a moral sense
Of justice and injustice
Justice, whether a natural or artificial virtue?
Of the origin of justice and property
Of the rules, which determine property
Of the transference of property by consent
Of the obligation of promises
Some farther reflections concerning justice and injustice
Of the origin of government
Of the source of allegiance
Of the measures of allegiance
Of the objects of allegiance
Of the laws of nations
Of chastity and modesty
Of the other virtues and vices
Of the origin of the natural virtues and vices
Of greatness of mind
Of goodness and benevolence
Of natural abilities
Some farther reflections concerning the natural abilities
Conclusion of this book
Appendix
An Abstract of...a Treatise of Human Nature
PART 3: SUPPLEMNTARY MATERIAL
Editors' Annotations
Annotations to the Treatise
Annotations to the Abstract
