Isaac Chan’s Reviews > An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding > Status Update
Isaac Chan
is on page 58 of 304
Note 5/n:
since it does not matter whether one's will is causally determined. Millican teaches that Hume follows Hobbes and I remain to read how he does so: I also now recall that he touches on liberty and necessity at the tail end of the 'Abstract'. I can imagine that Hume will proceed as follows: that we constantly observe our actions following our will, so custom gives us the idea of liberty. Something like that.
— 11 hours, 26 min ago
since it does not matter whether one's will is causally determined. Millican teaches that Hume follows Hobbes and I remain to read how he does so: I also now recall that he touches on liberty and necessity at the tail end of the 'Abstract'. I can imagine that Hume will proceed as follows: that we constantly observe our actions following our will, so custom gives us the idea of liberty. Something like that.
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Isaac Chan
is on page 58 of 304
Note n/n:
Indeed, it was Alex O'Connor's insight to me that one's actions follows from one's will, but one's will IS causally determined, that convinced me of determinism.
— 11 hours, 26 min ago
Indeed, it was Alex O'Connor's insight to me that one's actions follows from one's will, but one's will IS causally determined, that convinced me of determinism.
Isaac Chan
is on page 58 of 304
Note 4/n:
anything that Wittgenstein said new, then?
Furthermore, Millican does me a great favour yet again: I would not have known that Hume followed Hobbes in the compatibilist theory, if it were not for Millican. Hobbes posited compatibilism in Leviathan using a somewhat cheap linguistic hack: if you define liberty as 'One's actions being directed according to one's will', then this is obviously compatibilist ...
— 13 hours, 38 min ago
anything that Wittgenstein said new, then?
Furthermore, Millican does me a great favour yet again: I would not have known that Hume followed Hobbes in the compatibilist theory, if it were not for Millican. Hobbes posited compatibilism in Leviathan using a somewhat cheap linguistic hack: if you define liberty as 'One's actions being directed according to one's will', then this is obviously compatibilist ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 57 of 304
Note 3/n:
broader instances in the past. I do not imagine a small child would infer that a positive earnings announcement CAUSES a drop in the stock price, just by observing one such instance (because the positive earnings were below the whisper number).
Hume anticipates Wittgenstein here by commenting that much disagreement in philosophy stems from ambiguity of the definitions of the terms we use. So, how is ...
— 13 hours, 39 min ago
broader instances in the past. I do not imagine a small child would infer that a positive earnings announcement CAUSES a drop in the stock price, just by observing one such instance (because the positive earnings were below the whisper number).
Hume anticipates Wittgenstein here by commenting that much disagreement in philosophy stems from ambiguity of the definitions of the terms we use. So, how is ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 57 of 304
Note 2/n:
we often ascribe causation irl after just observing ONE instance. In fact this is the root of much bad thinking in our politics, in our work, in our investing, and much of daily life. I myself have done this many times in the past. How do you explain this phenomenon then, in the strictly positive sphere?
This can only be explained if the singular instances we observed were derivations of similar, ...
— 13 hours, 40 min ago
we often ascribe causation irl after just observing ONE instance. In fact this is the root of much bad thinking in our politics, in our work, in our investing, and much of daily life. I myself have done this many times in the past. How do you explain this phenomenon then, in the strictly positive sphere?
This can only be explained if the singular instances we observed were derivations of similar, ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 57 of 304
Note 1/n:
I simply must challenge Hume on 1 point now: he says that custom is necessarily, positively how we have an idea of causation. He says the mind only gets an idea of causation after it observes a long course of uniform experience. From what I can read, it is not just normative that we should not infer causation from a single instance - he says that this is positively so.
But this is clearly not the case:
— 13 hours, 41 min ago
I simply must challenge Hume on 1 point now: he says that custom is necessarily, positively how we have an idea of causation. He says the mind only gets an idea of causation after it observes a long course of uniform experience. From what I can read, it is not just normative that we should not infer causation from a single instance - he says that this is positively so.
But this is clearly not the case:
Isaac Chan
is on page 56 of 304
Note 5/n:
system, custom alone can create an internal impression that imprints an idea.
Finally, Hume maintains that a cause = if the 1st object had not been, the 2nd never had existed. This jives exactly with that Goodfellows episode 'The counterfactual show' that I watched in 2024, where I learned the profound concept from Stephen Kotkin that all causal explanations are counterfactual arguments BY DEFINITION.
— Feb 17, 2026 06:52AM
system, custom alone can create an internal impression that imprints an idea.
Finally, Hume maintains that a cause = if the 1st object had not been, the 2nd never had existed. This jives exactly with that Goodfellows episode 'The counterfactual show' that I watched in 2024, where I learned the profound concept from Stephen Kotkin that all causal explanations are counterfactual arguments BY DEFINITION.
Isaac Chan
is on page 56 of 304
Note 4/n:
capital which caused its trade deficit? I thought that the temporal priority of many events in real life are highly ambiguous but no one can doubt that they are causally intertwined. Thus I concur with Hume to drop this condition of temporal priority.
Millican's commentary that Hume had 'finally tracked down the impression of necessary connexion' also confuses me: I did not know that, within Hume's ...
— Feb 17, 2026 06:52AM
capital which caused its trade deficit? I thought that the temporal priority of many events in real life are highly ambiguous but no one can doubt that they are causally intertwined. Thus I concur with Hume to drop this condition of temporal priority.
Millican's commentary that Hume had 'finally tracked down the impression of necessary connexion' also confuses me: I did not know that, within Hume's ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 56 of 304
Note 3/n:
I see from my review of the 'Abstract' that my June 2025 self had thought that priority in time is a pretty weak condition: I used the example of the US's strong trade deficit and corresponding capital surplus. Which one was prior in time? Did the US's relentless import purchases over the past several decades fuel its capital surplus, or did the US's highly attractive financial markets attract global ...
— Feb 17, 2026 06:51AM
I see from my review of the 'Abstract' that my June 2025 self had thought that priority in time is a pretty weak condition: I used the example of the US's strong trade deficit and corresponding capital surplus. Which one was prior in time? Did the US's relentless import purchases over the past several decades fuel its capital surplus, or did the US's highly attractive financial markets attract global ...
Isaac Chan
is on page 56 of 304
Note 2/n:
'necessary connexion'.
A further thought on Hume's 2 famous definitions of a cause (also refer to page xlv in the intro). Millican teaches me that in the Treatise, Hume had insisted that a cause must be contiguous with its effect as well as temporally prior, but he had dropped the latter condition from the Enquiry. (The 2 definitions in the Enquiry both concern themselves only with contiguity in space.)
— Feb 17, 2026 06:48AM
'necessary connexion'.
A further thought on Hume's 2 famous definitions of a cause (also refer to page xlv in the intro). Millican teaches me that in the Treatise, Hume had insisted that a cause must be contiguous with its effect as well as temporally prior, but he had dropped the latter condition from the Enquiry. (The 2 definitions in the Enquiry both concern themselves only with contiguity in space.)
Isaac Chan
is on page 56 of 304
Note 1/n:
Revisiting my review of the 'Abstract' this morning was so annoying - it revealed how many details I had forgotten and had missed in the Enquiry. Firstly, Hume had mentioned the terms 'power' and 'force' (in relation to necessary connexion) multiple times in the Abstract, so I should NOT have found those terms foreign in my current reading of the Enquiry, nor should I have not known what he means by ...
— Feb 17, 2026 06:47AM
Revisiting my review of the 'Abstract' this morning was so annoying - it revealed how many details I had forgotten and had missed in the Enquiry. Firstly, Hume had mentioned the terms 'power' and 'force' (in relation to necessary connexion) multiple times in the Abstract, so I should NOT have found those terms foreign in my current reading of the Enquiry, nor should I have not known what he means by ...
