Introduction

This chapter examines David Hume’s method of inquiry. It shows that the Hume of the Treatise was committed to accepting whichever theory provides the ‘best explanation’ of a phenomenon of a certain kind and that he provided several criteria for judging what makes a theory best. The chapter argues that Hume’s concern was with the nature of the mind, in so far as that nature can be ‘known’ on the basis of ‘the experimental method’. Nor should this be surprising. The very subtitle of the Treatise indicates that it is ‘An Attempt to introduce the experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects’. Further, Hume’s treatment of philosophical issues is anything but what one would expect from a philosopher. Hume was an epistemologist, but his discussions of memory pay little or no attention to the epistemic question of the nature and extent of knowledge based upon memory.