Isaac Chan’s Reviews > An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding > Status Update
Isaac Chan
is on page 49 of 304
Note 3/n:
NO! Again, we merely observe contiguity in space and priority in time. We only observe 2 constantly conjoined events: i) The order of my will, ii) The subsequent obedience of my body. We never observe the causal glue between i) and ii). I, of course, can certainly conceive of a state where ii) does not follow from i): which is obviously observed in reality! - in the case of a paralysed man, or a patient ...
— Feb 10, 2026 03:59AM
NO! Again, we merely observe contiguity in space and priority in time. We only observe 2 constantly conjoined events: i) The order of my will, ii) The subsequent obedience of my body. We never observe the causal glue between i) and ii). I, of course, can certainly conceive of a state where ii) does not follow from i): which is obviously observed in reality! - in the case of a paralysed man, or a patient ...
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Isaac Chan
is on page 53 of 304
Note 2/2:
great danger of the abstruse philosophy: that it can stray far from the logic of real life, cuz it has no common sense to rein it in. So this must mean that Hume thinks that his empiricism is not remote from common life and experience, then! Indeed, this is slightly disingenuous of Hume imo: for he is a champion of the abstruse philosophy himself, and his doctrine of skepticism is hardly common-sense.
— 1 hour, 34 min ago
great danger of the abstruse philosophy: that it can stray far from the logic of real life, cuz it has no common sense to rein it in. So this must mean that Hume thinks that his empiricism is not remote from common life and experience, then! Indeed, this is slightly disingenuous of Hume imo: for he is a champion of the abstruse philosophy himself, and his doctrine of skepticism is hardly common-sense.
Isaac Chan
is on page 52 of 304
Note 1/2:
Hume's first refutation of Malebranche's occasionalism is telling - it tells me that he thinks that common sense is a sufficient argument to refute a philosophical argument (Malebranche's philosophy being, if I understand it correctly, that God is constantly creating, willing, and moving all objects in the universe - not an unappealing theory to me).
Indeed, Hume had warned in Section 1 that this is a ...
— 1 hour, 35 min ago
Hume's first refutation of Malebranche's occasionalism is telling - it tells me that he thinks that common sense is a sufficient argument to refute a philosophical argument (Malebranche's philosophy being, if I understand it correctly, that God is constantly creating, willing, and moving all objects in the universe - not an unappealing theory to me).
Indeed, Hume had warned in Section 1 that this is a ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 50 of 304
Note 6/n:
situate my lack an idea of necessary connexion within Hume's epistemology. Millican explains to me that Hume often replaces the term 'necessary connexion' with just 'connexion', indicating that the key idea whose source he is seeking is not strictly necessary connexion, but the broader notion of connexion in general.
— Feb 10, 2026 04:02AM
situate my lack an idea of necessary connexion within Hume's epistemology. Millican explains to me that Hume often replaces the term 'necessary connexion' with just 'connexion', indicating that the key idea whose source he is seeking is not strictly necessary connexion, but the broader notion of connexion in general.
Isaac Chan
is on page 50 of 304
Note 5/n:
etc. Necessary connexion does NOT occur in the economic and social world, e.g., inflation from an expansion of the money supply, mean-reversion to intrinsic value of mispriced securities, default of a borrower with a shit DSCR, etc. Hence I certainly don't have an idea of necessary connexion in the latter world - my thoughts on this are very vague, but in a hazy sense, I was wrestling with how to ...
— Feb 10, 2026 04:01AM
etc. Necessary connexion does NOT occur in the economic and social world, e.g., inflation from an expansion of the money supply, mean-reversion to intrinsic value of mispriced securities, default of a borrower with a shit DSCR, etc. Hence I certainly don't have an idea of necessary connexion in the latter world - my thoughts on this are very vague, but in a hazy sense, I was wrestling with how to ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 50 of 304
Note 4/n:
of dementia, or the simple observation that I cannot direct the organs in my body. The mind takes a convenient cognitive shortcut by forgetting this last point.
Also, Millican somewhat addresses 1 of the lingering thoughts I have. I observe that necessary connexion nearly always only occurs in the natural world, e.g. the collision of billiard balls, the free-fall of objects, heat resulting from a flame,...
— Feb 10, 2026 04:01AM
of dementia, or the simple observation that I cannot direct the organs in my body. The mind takes a convenient cognitive shortcut by forgetting this last point.
Also, Millican somewhat addresses 1 of the lingering thoughts I have. I observe that necessary connexion nearly always only occurs in the natural world, e.g. the collision of billiard balls, the free-fall of objects, heat resulting from a flame,...
Isaac Chan
is on page 48 of 304
Note 2/n:
also the essence of the universe - this essence flows through and directs all things in the universe. It is a reasonable hypothesis that this consciousness of the will - that when my will directs my limbs, they immediately move accordingly; when my will organizes the faculties of my mind, it obeys - may very well be the impression that grants us the idea of necessary connexion.
But according to Hume, ...
— Feb 10, 2026 03:59AM
also the essence of the universe - this essence flows through and directs all things in the universe. It is a reasonable hypothesis that this consciousness of the will - that when my will directs my limbs, they immediately move accordingly; when my will organizes the faculties of my mind, it obeys - may very well be the impression that grants us the idea of necessary connexion.
But according to Hume, ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 47 of 304
Note 1/n:
This exploration of whether our idea of necessary connexion originates from our intimate consciousness of our will/ inner sentiment is ... unbelievably Schopenhauerian, and I am surprised that no one, not even Millican's notes, points this out. (According to Schopenhauer's exciting philosophy) It is a universal experience that, when we look deep within ourselves, we discover not only our own essence, but...
— Feb 10, 2026 03:57AM
This exploration of whether our idea of necessary connexion originates from our intimate consciousness of our will/ inner sentiment is ... unbelievably Schopenhauerian, and I am surprised that no one, not even Millican's notes, points this out. (According to Schopenhauer's exciting philosophy) It is a universal experience that, when we look deep within ourselves, we discover not only our own essence, but...
Isaac Chan
is on page 47 of 304
Note 2/2:
certainly doesn't state clearly anywhere in the Treatise or the Enquiry, whether he thinks i) or ii), and idk why. I would've thought it a tremendously important point to make clear.
— Feb 08, 2026 08:04PM
certainly doesn't state clearly anywhere in the Treatise or the Enquiry, whether he thinks i) or ii), and idk why. I would've thought it a tremendously important point to make clear.
Isaac Chan
is on page 47 of 304
Note 1/2:
As of now, I still don't know whether Hume thought: i) that necessary connexion does NOT exist AT ALL, ii) he allowed for the existence of necessary connexion, it's just that we can never know the necessary connexion of a cause and its effects, because we never directly observe necessary connexion. Due to the copy principle, whatever we never experience, we never have an idea of.
To my knowledge, he ...
— Feb 08, 2026 08:03PM
As of now, I still don't know whether Hume thought: i) that necessary connexion does NOT exist AT ALL, ii) he allowed for the existence of necessary connexion, it's just that we can never know the necessary connexion of a cause and its effects, because we never directly observe necessary connexion. Due to the copy principle, whatever we never experience, we never have an idea of.
To my knowledge, he ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 45 of 304
Note n/n:
rigorous work that WAS available in the 18th century, namely, the labourious, borderline autistic analysis of corn prices that Smith later did. All of Hume's economics was just a priori reasoning.
— Feb 07, 2026 11:42PM
rigorous work that WAS available in the 18th century, namely, the labourious, borderline autistic analysis of corn prices that Smith later did. All of Hume's economics was just a priori reasoning.
