The Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume (1711-1776) is a shortened and simplified version of Hume's masterpiece A Treatise of Human Nature. It sought to reach a wider audience, and to dispel some of the virulent criticism addressed toward the former book. In it, Hume explains his theory of epistemology, and argues against other current theories, including those of John Locke, George Berkeley, and Nicolas Malebranche. Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding is most influential in the developments of modern philosophy: think of Kant, phenomenology, and analytic philosophy. Hume's science of the mind is concerned with questions regarding causality, skepticism, miracles, the relation between habit and belief, animal thought and freedom and necessity.