Salutations!

I have finally finished reading David Hume’s most famous work (although it is not his best) after putting it down halfway through a few months ago. I will attempt to summarize to the best of my ability that which Hume has written.

Moral Reasoning

In many chapters, Hume attempts to construct a clear idea of what it means to accept testimony. The mark of an intellectual society is the ability to tell myth from fact. Hume gives us many historical examples of how cruel can be, as was the case with Epicurus of Ancient Greece, which Hume explains with a “what could have been” speech from Epicurus to the Athenian people, provided by a close friend of Hume’s. In conclusion, Hume says that to evaluate testimony, we must put it through its paces. Does it align with our personal experiences? Would it be more Miraculous for this person to be lying; than for his testimony to be true? What does he have to lose if it truly is a lie? Would it ruin his reputation and social relations if it were? These are the questions we must ask ourselves.

Causation

To explain the limitations of human understanding, Hume uses basic principles of Physics, such as the passing of a moment of force from one object to another, putting the latter in motion. The connection between cause (the moment of force in the first object) and the effect (the passing of that moment to the second object) is in reality unknown to us, we simply form the connection through the rationalization of past experiences. To be able to predict a phenomenon (such as the one mentioned before) would be to understand it. With this groundwork, Hume also proposes the theory of compatibilism, which states that the Universe is of intelligent design, yet there can be free will, due to the unpredictability of certain phenomenon.

Skeptics and Skepticism

In the last few chapters, Hume expresses his thoughts on Skeptics of his time. He sees them as entertainers at best, a hindrance to science at worst. Hume then recalls the observations in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy; that reality is not subjective; it does not change when we change our perspective or perception of it. It does not and will not cease to exist if any or all intelligent life ceases to exist. Due to this, Hume deems skeptics as sophists who only seek to confuse people with their illusions. While some of their claims are indeed correct, they merely exploit the sense of surprise and newfound wonder to make their other testimonies believable.

Conclusion

For those who are new to philosophy, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding isn’t exactly a good entry, depending on which publication you own, there might not even be an introduction, or footnotes or a glossary, it also references some other authors and texts which you might not have read, so it could prove alienating. As for those who are more seasoned readers, it is a great book worth your attention. I’ll consider making a short reading list, just the basics to get you started.

Until next time, R&M.