(An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding)

HUME, David (S.I. Tsereteli, translator)

Published by M. V. Pirozhkov, Petersburg, 1902

About this Item

HUME, David, (An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding // Issledovaniye chelovecheskogo ponimaniya), translated by S.I. Tsereteli. M. V. Pirozhkov, Petersburg, 1902. TP + 1 - 193 + 1 leaf = contents, Octavo. First Russian Translation in original printed wrappers. First published in 1748 by the title Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding, it was retitled in 1757 to the now-familiar An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. This is the book that the Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy have called "one of Hume's most important philosophical works, and one of the greatest works in Western philosophy."The book is Hume s definitive statement in support of reasoning from experience, and against the "sophistry and illusion"of religiously inspired philosophical fantasies. The Enquiry investigates the origin and processes of human thought and reaches the stark conclusion that we can have no ultimate understanding of the physical world, or even of our own minds. In either sphere we must depend on instinctive learning from experience, recognizing our animal nature and the limits of reason. Hume's calm and open-minded skepticism thus aims to provide a new basis for science, liberating us from the "superstition" of false metaphysics and religion. Such ideas rooted in strict empiricism found a home in the activities of the 19th century Russian intelligentsia who sought to reshape the social environment according to a scientific rationalism that supplanted the superstitious traditions of the past. Characters like Bazarov in Turgenev s Fathers and Sons and Rakhmetiov in Chernyshevsky s What Is To Be Done? exemplified Hume s philosophy. Lenin embraced the writings of Nikolai Chernyshevsky, even naming his famous revolutionary pamphlet after Chernyshevsky s famous novel. S.I. (Irakli) Tsereteli (1881 - 1959) was a Georgian politician and activist who was engaged in many of the student revolutionary movements, even being arrested as a student in early 1902 (the same year as his translation of Hume). "Tsereteli was a leading spokesman of the Social Democratic Party of Georgia and later Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) during the era of the Russian Revolutions. A dedicated Social Democrat, Tsereteli was one of the leading figures of the movement in Russia. In the aftermath of the 1917 February Revolution, he took up a leading position in the Petrograd Soviet and accepted a position in the Russian Provisional Government as Minister of Post and Telegraph, and briefly as Minister of the Interior. After the Bolsheviks seized power of the Russian government during the October Revolution, Tsereteli returned to Georgia. He worked as a diplomat at the Paris Peace Conference, where he lobbied for international recognition and assistance for the newly independent Democratic Republic of Georgia; meaningful assistance largely failed to materialize before the Bolshevik-led Red Army invaded in 1921" (Wikipedia).World Cat locates only three copies. CONDITION: Very good to near fine in original publisher s printed wrappers. Very light edgewear to wrappers, former owner name neatly inscribed to top corner of title page. Internally clean. Old library stamps to top edge of rear wrapper.

Seller Inventory # 882

Bibliographic Details

• Title: (An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding)
• Publisher: M. V. Pirozhkov, Petersburg
• Publication Date: 1902
• Binding: Wraps
• Edition: first Edition.
• Condition: Very good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Philosophy & Religions