2017-01-21Tu

Lecture 14 Hume

The unintelligibility of the true nature of cause

o Usually we think of cause and effect
o E.g. if your friend wears a black coat on Tuesdays, this isnt
a necessary connection between the two
There is no necessary connection (that is discernable) about
cause and effect; and yet we have an idea of necessary
connection
o Hume explains this idea of A causing B, by saying that
when we repeatedly see A occur and then B, then we
create a connection between A and B
The idea of a necessary connection is produced completely in the
mind
Hume says that when we have an idea, it comes from an
impression that feeling that we get that A causes B is the
feeling which leads to the idea of a necessary connection
between A and B (cause and effect)
There is a kind of pre-established harmony between the way our
mind works and the world around us
o To Hume there are no metaphysics there can be no k
knowledge beyond experience
Principle of the Uniformity of Nature = the idea that the future
will be the same as the past
First kind of probability frequency: how may times has X
happened? How often has it happened? (based on the frequency
of past events, you can make a prediction of the future)
Probability of chance: the probability assigned to each of the
possible outcomes in a situation (e.g. head or tails = 50/50;
getting 6 on a dice = 1/6)

Human Action & Liberty

2 sources of necessity
o Principle of the Uniformity of Nature
o Minds determination to infer effect when it finds a cause(?)
We expect to see a uniformity of character in people that we
think we see in the uniformity of nature; human behaviour is
analogous to their motives and situations
o Cause = Motive | Effect = Behaviour we assume that
this is what should be expected
There is no necessary connection between cause and effect
when they relate to human behaviour
We want to be able to act in a free way
 It is only if we can act freely that we can then rebuke those who
do not act correctly
The only way we can differentiate motive from cause is to forgo
the necessary connection between cause and effect
o We have to then assume there are different forces at work
in a human mind that controls behaviour than those that
work on the material body distinguish between material
and moral
Just because we feel no force doesnt necessarily mean that
there isnt one
Absence of constraints doesnt mean that there is necessity
o There is no connection between liberty and necessity
o You need to be able to associate moral responsibility for
actions with character
If you have a personal identity that can be identified over time; if
there is a self-consciousness that is recognizable then you can be
held responsible for your actions
o We make inferences about peoples character based on
what they do
Uniformity + necessity means that when someone we think as
good does something bad, we think that there must be a reason
because it is outside the norm, outside what is expected
Hume thinks that character traits have a regular influence on the
mind; the same way that A is the cause of B
Objection
o Involuntary actions
Causal change of reasoning

Miracles
Most of the things that people of the Christian religion believe is
not experienced they are told by other believers, the clergy and
the Bible
Hume says that there is little evidence for the beliefs of
Christianity that can be experienced
Believes that Christianity is a rejection, in effect, of the senses
which tell us our relation to the world and how we should act;
H also says that it goes against the uniformity of nature (e.g. a
man rising from the dead goes completely against sense
experience)
The testimony of witnesses gains more credibility when there are
more of them, theres less when there is a conformity between
them
o If the evidence for something comes down to the
eyewitnesses accounts, then what is more likely that the
 witnesses are telling the truth or that something that
violates the uniformity of nature?
The inconsistent nature of the Bible and the conflicting accounts
within it suggest that the Bible is untruth
o There is a significant amount of evidence for the uniformity
of nature; there needs to be an overwhelming amount of
evidence for the violation of this uniformity
What kind of evidence would be required for the
probability for the uniformity of nature to be violated
higher than the probability that nature maintained its
uniformity
Hume says that there is no way for the evidence to be such; he
says that it would have to be that someone is lying about
witnessing what they did (the testimony would be more
miraculous than the occurrence)