About This Edition

This annotated hypertext edition of: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding was produced by Roger Jones.

The starting point for preparation of the edition was: The Internet Wiretap online edition

The conversion to hypertext was undertaken for the following reasons:

1. To provide a conveniently accessible electronic copy of the Enquiries.
2. As an experiment in using hypertext for preparing and presenting a commentary on the work.

As it stands only the first steps have been completed, consisting of a rather coarse breakdown into a basic hypertext structure reflecting only Hume's structuring of the work into chapters and sections. Work on a commentary has scarce begun, and more useful linking is expected only to be introduced during the development of the commentary.

Nevertheless, even in its present state, it represents a point of some interest between a plain text edition, and the rather fine grained hypertext to be found in a recent edition (now withdrawn for copyright reasons) of Wittgenstein's Tractatus.

There are several ways in which you might be able to make use of the hypertext edition.

1. Read the original text. The commentaries are not obtrusive, and the hypertext links should make the original text easier to navigate.
2. Read the text as presented in the commentaries.
3. Prepare your own commentary referring to the original text, ignoring the commentary provided.
4. If you want to, you can supplement or amend the supplied commentary rather than completely replace it. You can comment on the commentary as well.

The idea I am exploring is that hypertext is a good way of presenting philosophy, and that preparing hypertext notes is a good way of getting an understanding of a text, and getting your own ideas straight.

Copyright

Though the text of Hume's Enquiry used as a basis for this work is in the public domain, this hypertext edition is copyright Roger Bishop Jones, 1994. Permission is given to make use of this material for non-profit purposes, or to refer to the material for any purpose (though I doubt you need my permission for the latter).