David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding was a simplification of an earlier effort, Hume was disappointed with the reception of the Treatise of Human Nature He felt that if "fell dead-born from the press," as he put it, and so tried again to disseminate his ideas to the public by writing a shorter and more polemical work. The Enquiry dispensed with much of the material from the Treatise, in favor of clarifying and emphasizing its most important aspects.
Hume, David David Hume (1711-1776), along with Adam Smith and Thomas Reid, was one of the most important figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. His writings, which encompass philosophy, economics, and history, include "A Treatise of Human Nature; Essays, Moral and Political; and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding."