MIND OF DAVID HUME: A Companion to Book 1 of "A Treatise of Human Nature"

From Library Journal
Hume's Treatise, published anonymously in 1739, was his attempt at an explication of a complete philosophical system, a system upon when he had been working since the age of 15. The book's reception was disappointing, and it has been suggested that perhaps Kant and Thomas Reid were the only contemporary philosophers capable of fully understanding it. Book 1, the subject of Johnson's thorough analysis, is divided into four parts: Part 1 deals with Hume's proposition that ideas are derived from impressions; Part 2 discusses the empirical roots of space, time, and existence; Part 3 concerns itself with knowledge, probability, and the nature of the cause-effect relationship; and Part 4 centers on Hume's skepticism and his analysis of a number of metaphysical systems. Johnson (emeritus, philosophy, Univ. of California, Riverside) has done a superb job of laying out the nature and structure of Hume's arguments in Book 1, and his clear style should open the Treatise even to those relatively new to Hume. This book deserves to be in all academic philosophy collections, particularly where the British Empiricists are a major element in the study program.?Terry Skeats, Bishop's Univ. Lib., Lennoxville, Quebec
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.