An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding 

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 .