David Hume_x0019_ 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 _x001C_ fell dead-born from the press _x001D_ 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. This book was highly influential Immanuel Kant points to it as the book which woke him from his _x001C_ dogmatic slumber._x001D_ The Enquiry is widely regarded as a classic in modern philosophical literature.