Causes are Known Only Through Experience (Hume)

"The mind can never possibly find the effect in the supposed cause … For the effect is totally different from the cause, and consequently can never be discovered in it." (IP3 109b)

Examples: IP3 109b

"In a word, then every effect is a distinct event from its cause. It could not, therefore, be discovered in the cause … And … the conjunction of it with the cause must appear … arbitrary, since there are always many other effects, which, to reason, must seem fully as consistent and natural." (IP3 109b)


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Richard Lee, rlee@uark.edu, last modified: 3 November 2004