PHL100Y1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Empiricism, Inductive Reasoning, Rational Basis Review
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The stuff we do do not indicate there being a reason for doing so: hume"s problem of induction. We are stuck without any rational basis for the kinds of connection that we make and we draw. We can clarify hume"s problem by contrasting it with some other well known problems with causal reasoning: finite sample problems and generalization worries, interpreting probabilistic or statistical claims. I got dumped by someone when i took them to an italian restaurant > thus, i won"t take anyone else i want to date to an italian restaurant. What hume posits is that this is no better than any other inductive reasoning. Why don"t we experience life through conjuncted events. Hume therefore turns to a related, though distinct, question. So once we do not acquire caused beliefs through conscious or unconscious reasoning processes, we must get them merely by habituation through the influence of custom :
