An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding: With Hume's Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature and A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh

A landmark of Enlightenment thought, Hume's *An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding* is accompanied here by two shorter works that shed light on it: *A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh*, Hume's response to those accusing him of atheism, of advocating extreme skepticism, and of undermining the foundations of morality; and his Abstract of *A Treatise of Human Nature*, which anticipates discussions developed in the *Enquiry*. In his concise Introduction, Eric Steinberg explores the conditions that led Hume to write the Enquiry and the work's important relationship to Book I of Hume's *A Treatise of Human Nature*.