Scottish philosopher David Hume’s Treatise on Human Nature is a three-volume work describing how we can be assured of knowledge, thought, and experience. It is considered one of the most influential works of philosophy, and fittingly, has influenced philosophers for decades, as well. Completed in 1740, Hume aims to apply the scientific principles, newly established in the ongoing Enlightenment, to cognition, human nature, and morality. For this project, I’ve read the first book, which focuses on ideas. It’s fascinating, personally, to know that these schools of skeptical and empirical thought were just becoming more established as Hume was considering how their implications would affect psychology and morality. He proved to have foresight and wisdom generations before his time.
Legacy
As an empiricist and Enlightenment thinker, Hume would limit his conclusions to things which can be experienced with the senses, rather than on reason, as opposed to the rationalist perspective. He sees this as closely related to religion, which he also rejects.
This examination marks the first foray into the scientific study of humanity, exploring topics like human choice and cognition. As such, it greatly influenced Kant and Emerson, as well as Thoreau, making it a vital text to understand when we are looking at these writers. Hume’s work has been credited by Charles Darwin as a great influence on his theory of evolution. One hundred fifty years before Sigmund Freud would publish On the Interpretation of Dreams and establish the practice of psychoanalysis, Hume spoke about the difficulty of the practices of psychology and philosophy, which can disturb the natural processes and responses of people. In bringing the scientific method to the study of human understanding, Hume laid a foundation for philosophers and psychologists who would follow.
Overview of Text:
Hume begins by examining the differences between ideas and impressions, or thoughts and feelings. From ideas and impressions, our entire understanding and human experience is formed. He posits that people don’t act according to reason, but by principles that we develop and abide by in society. He goes on to detail that similar ideas are often mistaken for each other, and looks at the causes of psychological and religious belief. He deals with Aristotelian and “modern” philosophy, then briefly with the concept of the self at the end of the text. He would go on to explore the concept of the self more deeply in his Inquiry on Human Understanding.
Understanding requires difficult work
Hume sets expectations that the search for truth will not be easy.
“For if truth be at all within the reaches of human capacity, ‘tis certain it must lie every deep and abstruse, and to hope we shall arrive at it without pains, while the greatest geniuses have failed with the utmost pains, must certainly be esteemed sufficiently vain and presumptuous.”
Hume understands and puts forth the Enlightenment perspective that all things hitherto “known” must now be examined with scientific rigor. Therefore, the study of human thought and experience must also come under this standard, and be examined with empirical methods. Hume revolutionizes the study of philosophy by proposing human cognition can be studied in the same manner as physics or biology.
How wonderful to see that Hume acknowledges the difficulty inherent in seeking to know the truth. To often, we expect learning to be a simple, comfortable process of simply reading or listening to information presented. The actual learning, though, comes in the doing. Education is a responsibility and a process, which are meant to be rigorous and do require effort on the part of learner. Encountering new ideas, putting aside your notions or expectations of how something ‘should’ work, working to understand concepts fully, and finally putting the new information to use; all of this is difficult and time-consuming, but it’s worth the effort.
Case in point, writing these posts about what I’m learning during this philosophy project has made the information tangible, and increased my understanding exponentially. The best way to learn, as they say, is to teach, and I’ve experienced the truth of that. I was seeking to expand my knowledge of philosophers and their writings, as well as develop a resource of quotes and concepts to reference in my writing. It has certainly helped on both accounts, which makes my efforts worthwhile.
Hume’s Treatise on Human Understanding is a pivotal text in understanding how the empirical approach to psychology and philosophy works. Being familiar with it’s concepts allows us to better understand Emerson and the wonderful address which inspired this project.
Ed. note: This is the fifteenth entry in a series looking at the three schools of philosophy for perspectives on relationships in our modern world. Inspired by Emerson’s “The American Scholar,” we are exploring timeless wisdom which endures to inform our approaches to learning, relationships and leadership. Click here for all the posts in this series.
