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.