Book · 1739
A Treatise of Human Nature
by David Hume
A philosopher looks inward for a stable self and finds only a bundle of passing perceptions, no core included.
What does Reddit think of A Treatise of Human Nature?
r/askphilosophy is where this lives, and it treats the Treatise as a toolbox for other debates as much as a text on its own. Hume's account of causality gets pulled into a discussion of determinism (↑67): if cause-and-effect is just a story people tell, hard determinism loses its footing. Elsewhere, a comment ranks the Treatise alongside Gödel's incompleteness results as one of philosophy's genuinely devastating conclusions, the kind people know about but avoid confronting directly (↑33). The self-as-bundle passage ("I never can catch myself... without a perception") gets quoted directly, not paraphrased (↑28), which suggests it functions as literature as much as argument. One comment recommends the Treatise specifically to a reader coming from Jordan Peterson, covering topics JBP skips (↑14). r/philosophy's smaller footprint here leans toward volume three, Hume's moral sentimentalism, treated as its own, self-contained entry point (↑15).
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Hume's causality problem underlying determinism debates
- · The bundle theory of the self, quoted directly
- · Volume three's moral sentimentalism as a separate entry point
- · Recommended as a broader alternative to Jordan Peterson-adjacent reading
Common praise
- + The causality passage gets applied directly to a live determinism debate instead of cited as background alone (↑67).
- + A commenter ranks it next to Gödel's incompleteness theorem as one of philosophy's genuinely unresolved gut-punches (↑33).
- + The bundle-of-perceptions passage on personal identity gets quoted verbatim, a different kind of respect than a summary (↑28).
Common criticism
- − r/philosophy barely shows up next to r/askphilosophy in this sample, so it's hard to tell from this data how the book lands outside a dedicated philosophy audience.
- − Every comparison in this sample runs through other thinkers, Gödel, Descartes, Peterson, instead of treating Hume's own argument as the main event.
- − The recommendation to a Jordan-Peterson reader (↑14) frames it as a supplement to a popular author, not a starting point on its own terms.
Who it's for
Trust an argument more when it's quoted verbatim instead of paraphrased? The bundle-of-self passage shows up word for word in this sample, and that's the register the book rewards. Coming off Jordan Peterson's reading list and want the philosophy without the self-help gloss? One comment here recommends exactly that route (↑14). Interested in Hume's ethics specifically? Volume three gets treated as its own doorway, sentimentalism and moral approbation, without needing the rest of the Treatise first. Looking for a settled verdict on whether Hume was right? Nobody quoted here offers one; they use him to argue about other things instead.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for A Treatise of Human Nature?
The most relevant excerpts across the subreddits where this book is mentioned — opinionated, argued takes first, then top-upvoted mentions. Click through to read the full thread.
“>In 1915, Albert Einstein wrote a letter to the philosopher and physicist Moritz Schlick, who had recently composed an article on the theory of relativity. Einstein praised it: ‘From the philosophical perspective, nothing nearly as clear seems to have been written on the topic.’ Then he went on to e…
“Determinism tends to require causality. Without causality it is difficult to get determinism. Recall Hume's observations about stories we tell about causality in An Abstract of A Treatise of Human Nature. The problem is where the 'cause and effect sto…
“> But many of the philosophers we've been reading in my course seem to try and build, from the ground up, entire theories explaining really broad phenomena, like their minds or reality itself, just based on their personal observation and reason. Descartes starts by skeptically analysing his senses,…
“>The Austrian mathematician, Kurt Gödel, made this abundantly clear in his Incompleteness Theorem of 1931, but few philosophers have paid much attention because its consequences, like those for David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature, are too devastating for rational thought to contemplate seriously. …
“David Hume For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but th…
“I second this. But when we studied meditations, I would not get even half of it without the proffs guidance. OP, I suggest you to read and ask questions here or try to find it somewhere online. Studying philosophy yourself is really hard. Also, here is the list of what we studied: 1. Descartes, Me…
“An introduction to Hume’s moral philosophy outlined in volume three of the Treatise of Human Nature and the Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals. Hume was a sentimentalist, naturalist, and empiricist when it came to ethics. He explores how our feelings shape our moral approbations. He was al…
“Hi. Another 19 year old here who got into philosophy because of JBP (back in 2016). If you want to start off and get some more general philosophy knowledge, I would recommend Hume's *Treatise of Human Nature* which covers a number of topics, largely ones that JBP doesn't go much into. However if y…
“>So since empathy is both highly motivating and rarely leads to mistakes... You're making two different claims here. First, there is a descriptive claim about the psychology of how people make decisions. You're saying that empathy, as a faculty, is what motivates moral action. That may be true (a…
“Reason is, and ought only to be, the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them,” Scottish philosopher David Hume famously said in his *Treatise of Human Nature.*He also offered a theory about the way that emotions spread among people, which helps…
“Descartes only sort of covers this in his meditations, he’s on a quest for what knowledge is and it’s foundations, but he does determine we are thinking things, capable of logic and reason. Plato slightly covers this when he’s looking at “the self” and what is “I”, in his essays concerning human und…
Convinced? Pick up A Treatise of Human Nature
What else does r/askphilosophy read?
Other books mentioned in the same sub, ranked. Shared-sub overlap with this title breaks ties.
A Treatise of Human Nature — frequently asked
Do people read A Treatise of Human Nature for its own argument, or as background for other debates?+
Mostly the latter in this sample. r/askphilosophy pulls Hume's account of causality into live discussions of determinism (↑67) and stacks the Treatise's conclusions next to Gödel's incompleteness theorem (↑33) more often than it discusses the book as a self-contained work.
What's the most-quoted passage from A Treatise of Human Nature on Reddit?+
The bundle-of-self passage: "I never can catch myself at any time without a perception." It appears quoted directly, not summarized (↑28), used to argue against a stable, continuous self, a live topic in r/askphilosophy independent of Hume's other arguments.
Is A Treatise of Human Nature recommended as an alternative to Jordan Peterson?+
Yes, in at least one comment here. A reader who got into philosophy through Peterson is pointed toward the Treatise specifically for topics JBP doesn't cover (↑14), positioned as broader philosophical grounding, not a rejection of Peterson.
Which part of A Treatise of Human Nature does r/philosophy focus on?+
Volume three, on ethics. One comment (↑15) introduces it as Hume's moral sentimentalism and naturalism, distinct from the causality and personal-identity material that dominates r/askphilosophy's mentions.