PHILOS 1E03 Lecture 11: David Hume - Custom and Habit + John Locke - Causes & Powers NOTE
17 Jan 2020
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Custom and habit force us to think and behave in certain ways. We become inclined by this force to believe that similar instances of an object or event will produce similar effects. Custom and habit generate a strong feeling of believe that reason can only cast doubt on. If smoking caused cancer why doesn"t everyone get cancer if they smoke. We come to think that the link is so strong between smoking and cancer that we forget that some people smoke and do not get cancer. Hume thinks that sometimes this link is so strong in the mind that it generates a casual necessity. Some causes are uniform and constant in producing a particular kind of effect with no instance having between found any failure or irregularity in their operation. But other causes have been found to be more irregular and uncertain. All these statements are either intuitively or demonstratively certain.
