The Reluctant Revolutionary: An Essay on David Hume's Account of Necessary Connection

Hume's contributions to discussions on causality and necessary connection are significant and influential. Yet they remain a source of ongoing debate among philosophers. The analysis in my book is an attempt to dissipate some of the perplexities that surround these issues. The arguments here support what I call a subjectivist interpretation of Hume's views on necessary connection. My central thesis is the suggestion that Hume identifies necessary connection or power with a specific psychological dispositon of the mind "to carry our thought from one object to another". In addition to explaining and exploring this thesis, I critically investigate Hume's arguments for his powerful epistemological paradigm.