Theories of Knowledge
Wednesday, 10/30
David Hume

Cause and Effect
1.Priority in time (Yes)
2.Contiguity (Yes)
3.Necessary Connections (No)
(Hume believes in priority in time and contiguity, but not necessary connection.)

Necessity means logical necessity
If A happens, B must happen
If A happens, it is impossible for B not to happen

(B not happening implies a contradiction)

Hume-False, it is always possible for B not to happen
-The possible is the imaginable
-The impossible is unimaginable

Hume says that there is no logical explanation for why people believe in cause and effect. No rational justification, but there is a psychological explanation.

The necessity in cause and effect is all in your mind.
How do you know past patterns will continue in the future?

Classroom objections.
1.There is more to scientific laws than past patterns of occurrence
2.Can Hume as an empiricist believe in time?

Possible Test Question.
Q: Hume says cause and effect is?
A: an illusion created by psychological conditioning, which makes us expect B to follow A.