ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the French context of Hume’s Treatise of Human Nature, with special focus on those thinkers singled out by Hume himself as indispensable for understanding the “more metaphysical” parts of the Treatise: Descartes, Malebranche, and Pierre Bayle. The author traces the influence of each of these figures on Hume’s metaphysical and epistemological thought, with special attention paid to his discussions of space and time, causation, and skepticism.
