How We Have Evidence of Matters of Fact
Hume

Some things we know (or at least have evidence of) directly through sense experience.

E.g. (perhaps), "There are people in the room now."
Some things we know (or at least have evidence of) through the records of our memory.
E.g. (perhaps), "My mother was in a wheelchair."
We have evidence for other matters of fact through the relation of cause and effect.

"All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of Cause and Effect. By means of that relation alone can we go beyond the evidence of our memory and senses." (P 174a)
This is his answer to "Hume's Question".


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 14 March 2003