Thinking books · Knowledge & truth · David Hume, 1748

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding — the big ideas

On the limits of what experience can establish, especially about cause and effect.

Free — no account needed to read

The big ideas

We never observe causation, only one thing following another repeatedly. The necessity we feel is a habit of mind, not something found in the world.

The problem of induction: no amount of past regularity logically guarantees the future will resemble it, and every practical inference rests on that unprovable assumption.

His standard for miracles — is it more likely the report is mistaken than that the law was violated — is a general test for extraordinary claims.

The problem he raises has never been satisfactorily answered, and he knew it. Living and reasoning well without that answer is the actual skill the book leaves you with.

Practise it — no need to have read it

Take a causal claim you make at work. Write what you actually observed, as distinct from the causal story you attached.

A hint: What you observed is almost always a sequence, not a cause.

Where it shows up in real life

• Attributing results to actions
• Reading claims about what works
• Post-mortems

This book is old enough to be freely available in most countries.

Described in our own words with the source named — never quoted, and not a substitute for reading the book.