Introduction: A Treatise of Human Nature explained

The following are quotations from the Introduction of A Treatise of Human Nature explained:

“And as the science of man is the only solid foundation for the other sciences, so the only solid foundation we can give to this science itself must be laid on experience and observation.” Pg. 6

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         The philosophical importance of understanding the basis of human experience and observation must be carefully considered, always, being that it is quite likely and possible for humans to fall under the illusions of their own sophistry.

“For to me it seems evident, that the essence of the mind being equally unknown to us with that of external bodies, it must be equally impossible to form any notion of its powers and qualities otherwise than from careful and exact experiments, and the observation of those particular effects, which result from its different circumstances and situations.”

-          Habit and consistency of experimentation is the best description we have of any kind of cause and effect relation of analysis or hypothesis, because this is nature of the (known) mind.

“…tracing up our experiments to the utmost, and explaining all effects from the simplest and fewest causes, tis still certain we cannot go beyond experience; and any hypothesis, that pretends to discover the ultimate original qualities of human nature, ought at first to be rejected as presumptuous and chimerical …impossibility of explaining ultimate principles should be esteemed a defect in the science of man, I will venture to affirm, that tis a common defect to it with all the sciences, and all the arts, in which we can employ ourselves, whether they be such as are cultivated in the schools of philosophers, or practiced in the shops of the meanest artizans.” Pg. 7

-          Inability to identify the ultimate causes is not just a problem for philosophers, it reaches as far into science and art and even the workplaces.