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Hume wrote his Treatise in his twenties, in France, hoping to do for the study of the mind what Newton had done for the physical world. In three books on…
Hume wrote his Treatise in his twenties, in France, hoping to do for the study of the mind what Newton had done for the physical world. In three books on understanding, the passions and morality, he argues that the self is only a bundle of perceptions, that we cannot prove causes exist, and that reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions.
Context and significance
Published in 1739 and 1740, it 'fell dead-born from the press', as Hume put it, and he later rewrote its ideas in shorter books such as An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Today it is considered one of the most important works of philosophy in English.
About the author
David Hume (1711–1776) was born in Edinburgh and wrote his Treatise of Human Nature in his twenties, in France. His scepticism about religion cost him professorships at Edinburgh and Glasgow, but his essays and his History of England made him famous and comfortable.
As secretary to the British embassy in Paris he was adored in the salons, and in Edinburgh he was the warm centre of the Scottish Enlightenment and a close friend of Adam Smith. His Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding woke Kant from his dogmatic slumber. He faced death with a calm and humour that astonished his visitors.