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Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, published in 1748, is one of the most important works of philosophy ever written. It systematically established that effect follows cause, an idea that seems so natural to us now that it seems strange it needed to be proved. As it turns out, in the 18th century it was highly controversial. This book is essential reading not only for an example of how a rigorous proof can change the world, but also for the superb introduction by Peter Millican, which is worth the price of the book on its own. Perhaps its greatest success is that it explains why Hume had to go to such efforts to prove cause follows effect, and the arguments (and particularly contemporary religious doctrine) that he had to overcome (even though they seem nonsensical now – an excellent lesson for all of us). Make sure to buy this edition of Hume’s work.
Hume worked incredibly systematically to build his argument.
First he provides an introduction to philosophy as a whole, split into natural and moral philosophy. Naturally this has principal value now as a historical document. Modern philosophy has evolved somewhat (in no small part thanks to Hume). But what I found interesting was that this is mostly a build up to his argument that philosophers whose ideas intuitively match the popular opinion are likely to be preferred to those whose ideas are more subtle or counter intuitive.
This is exceptionally relevant. Reality is counter intuitive. Most people still expect a brick to fall fast than a marble. In an age when people can’t comprehend how vaccines work or w
He then argues for the importance of empiricism – the beautiful example he uses is that tasting an orange is superior to the idea of tasting an orange. Empiricism is fundamental to almost all science now, including the social sciences. He then describes how ideas work in sequences and associations: resemblance, space-time, and cause-and-effect. In an era when behavioural economics and cognitive psychology have become so important, we can see the roots of this progress in Humes writing. Yet both of these principles, which are so fundamental now, were directly contrary to the popular ideas of the time: particularly, that direct divine intervention caused the interaction between both objects and thoughts, and thus empirical experience was irrelevant when divine intervention might rule either way (this is a rather brutal piece of precis – I don’t mean to strawman, simply to illustrate that Hume’s ideas were not in keeping with the common model.)
Finally, he links the notions of probability and necessary connection to argue the most famous and remembered part of his thesis: that if one billiard ball hits another, it is the first that causes the second to move.
I’m going to stop there because you could write books on Hume’s masterpiece (and many better minds have). What I want to emphasise is that this book, and in particular this edition, will help you a) see how difficult it is for new ideas to overcome the popular consensus, no matter how dumb said consensus, and b) that if you’re thorough enough, if you’re prepared to engage with the scope of the debate, including people whose arguments are weak, you can change the world. Which is exactly what Hume did.
