David Hume (1711-76)

1. David Hume (1711-76) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

2. Section V: Sceptical Solutions of These Doubts Academic or sceptical philosophy • Doubt and suspense of judgments. • Danger of hasty determination. • Confining to very narrow bounds the inquiries of the understanding. • Renouncing all speculations which lie not within the limits of common life and practice.

3. Cause and Effect • Experience cannot teach us the secret power that supposedly connects the cause and the effect. • But if this is neither a product of experience nor reason then from where is it derived?

4. Cause and Effect • The principle is custom or habit.

5. Section VI: Probability • We should proportion the strength of our beliefs in accordance with the probability of something occurring. • The probability of the future should be proportioned as we have found it to be more or less frequent. • “We transfer the past to the future” (348).

6. Section VII: Of the Idea of Necessary Connection • The problem with philosophy and our inability to understand reality has been the lack of precision in the meaning of terms. • Words and their meaning • “It is impossible for us to think of anything [except the missing shade of blue], which we have not antecedently felt, either by internal or external sense” (350). • By a proper application of the this principle “men may reach a greater clearness and precision in philosophical reasonings” (350).

7. Terms in Question • “Power” • “Force” • “Energy” • “Necessary connection”

8. Necessary Connection • The assumption among philosophers is that there is such an idea as necessary connection. • The necessary connection is easily discovered when one observes nature and the operations of things in the world. • For instance, when one billiard ball moves and hits another it causes the other to move, i.e., the effect. • There is a necessary connection between the cause and the effect!

9. No Necessary Connection • All ideas must come from some impression. • Hume challenges us to find the impression of necessity. • I have the impression of one ball moving (event 1) and, when it comes into contact with the other ball, the second ball moving (event 2). • I have the impression of 2 events. Yes, it is true that one event immediately precedes the other but where is the necessary connection?

10. Necessary Connection • When we observe external objects we see individual objects that act. • The movements or operations of individual objects flow continuously so that one movement always precedes another and one always follows another. • Some events are such that they are always preceded by the same event, so that smoke is always preceded by fire. • These events (fire and smoke) are conjoined insofar as they are events in proximity of time and place.

11. Conjoined vs. Connected • What we know is simply the events and their temporal and spatial locations. • However, we have no impression of a connection. • That is, why and how they are connected remains something mysterious to us, and it is not something that we can know.

12. Reflection • Hume argues that reflection of one’s internal sensations and operations of the mind will not help us discover an impression of necessary connection. • I have simply a sensation of willing something (event 1) and later a sensation of performing the act willed (event2) . • However, there remains hidden from me the connection between these conjoined events.

13. Idea of Connection ??? • Where did the idea of necessary connection as commonly attributed to cause and effect come from? • “After he has observed several instances of this nature, he then pronounces them to be connected. What alteration has happened to give rise to this new idea of connection? Nothing but that he now feels these events to be connected in his imagination” (361). • From habit, it is we who create this idea of connection!

14. Conclusion • “And as we can have no idea of anything which never appeared to our outward sense or inward sentiment, the necessary conclusion seems to be that we have no idea of connection or power at all, and that these words are absolutely without any meaning, when employed either in philosophical reasonings or common life” (360).