Summary |
Hume approaches topics in metaphysics and epistemology via his theory of
ideas and the cognitive faculties. In metaphysics, his primary interest is in
questions not of the form ‘What is X?’ but of the form ‘What can we conceive X
to be?’ His best-known contribution is his argument that causation, as far as
we can conceive it, is just regular succession among objects or events, plus our
habit of inferring one object or event from another. He also made important
contributions concerning space and time, existence, identity, substances, and
free will. In epistemology, his primary interest is in questions of the form
‘Which of our cognitive faculties is responsible for our belief in X?’ His
best-known contribution is his argument that habit, not reason, engages us to
suppose that unobserved events will resemble observed ones (a view concerning
what philosophers now call induction). He also made important contributions
concerning the distinction between the a priori and the a posteriori, belief in
the external world, and religious belief. |