Essay on Analysis of Hume’s Critique of Causation

Analysis of Hume’s Critique of Causation Sometimes it is hard to be sure what conclusion to draw from a Humean analysis, and he is easy to misrepresent. This is partly because one argument he is engaged in may raise a number of related issues that he has dealt with elsewhere, and some of his points seem contradictory. My wish is to consider some of the possible readings of David Hume’s critique of causation, as it appears in Section VII of the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, â€Å"On Necessary Connexion†, and their relation to the propositions of Section II, â€Å"Of the Origin of Ideas†, and Section X, â€Å"On Miracles†. I will offer criticisms and alternatives to Hume’s account(s) and conclude by picking which interpretation of Section†¦show more content†¦This may be due to wariness about making strong commitments to the existence of a physical external realm, at least in a discussion of induction which is supposing that what are directly given in experience are sense impressions. Hume concludes at the end of Section VII of the Enquiry that the concept of causation may be preserved if we understand its definition as this: to say that a causes b is to say that the appearance of a is always succeeded by the appearance of b. 2[2] This definition will not do. If it were true that causation is equivalent to constant conjunction, then any cases of constant conjunction may be, as legitimately as any other, treated as a case of causation. Is, then, the shortening of days in Saskatoon to be taken as the cause of Christmas commercials on CTV? Furthermore, conjunction is a reciprocal relationship, causation is not. If a is conjoined with b, then b is conjoined with a. It is not the case if a causes b, that b causes a. We could suppose that cause and effect respectively refer to temporally anterior and posterior conjuncts, but if we are limited to sense impressions as our material for consideration, it must be admitted that some of the things which are consi dered causes are preceded by their effects (in sense).Would we say that vibrations in the ground are the cause of a train’s appearing from around the bend secondsShow MoreRelatedSummary of Immanuel Kants Life Essay1100 Words   |  5 Pagesdifferent branches of modern philosophy: the Critique of Pure Reason (1781) for the philosophy of mind; the Critique of Practical Reason (1788) for moral philosophy; and the Critique of Judgment (1790) for aesthetics, the philosophy of art. 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