Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding Edition of Seminal Work
Review: This is a superb edition of one of the basic works in Western philosophy. Designed to be used by both casual and serious students of philosophy, this edition contains the text of Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (EHU) and a series of other sections that provide background and further directions for studying Hume. Included are an excellent precis of the EHU, a first rate annotated bibliography concerning works by and about Hume, considerable background material on Hume, and excellent notes to the text of the EHU. The EHU is a concise and charmingly written presentation of Hume's views of the nature and particularly the limitations of human knowledge. The EHU presents Humes basic concepts of human thought, human pattern recognition, and then proceeds to Hume's revolutionary analysis of the problem of induction. Hume exposes our limitations in establishing certain cause and effect relations. Hume's analysis of this problem and its corollaries leads to ultimate skepticism about our ability to know the external world with certainty and undermines much of the basis for religion. Hume presents his ideas in an attractive style that owes much to famous 18th century essayists like Addison. A fundamental work and very readable work.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Philosophical Text
Review: While I tend to be a fan of mostly Plato's philosophy, Hume holds a special place in my mind. I was required to purchase this book for a Philosophy class, and read it immediately after reading Descartes' Meditations. That alone may be enough to influence my feelings towards the book, but upon reading it a second time I have decided that it was everything that I had cracked it up to be the first time. The best part of Hume's philosophy, while it is hard to swallow, is that it is easy to read and understand. This text gives his reasons on why he is able to doubt and toss out everything that DesCartes was able to prove to himself. Useful analogies and well chosen words are the benchmark of this timeless piece of literature. A must for anyone interested in Philosophy.
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