PHIL 004 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: David Hume
Document Summary
Habit, and not reason, enforces a perception of necessary connection b/w events. When we see two events constantly conjoined, our imagination infers a connection even if no rational grounds. There is no principle that the future always resembles the past. Inferences regarding matters of fact are ultimately based in probability. *free will: if we perceive no necessary connection b/w events, we shouldn"t worry that our actions are causally predetermined. Rather than view free will as the freedom to have done otherwise, we should view it as the freedom to act according to one"s own determinations, which is true of everyone but prisoners. *we are not rationally justified in believing the things we do. Hume does not deny that we make certain inferences based on causal reasoning, and indeed insists that we would be unable to live if we didn"t do so.
