2021-01-17
phil-2203
- Causation
- David Hume's empiricism
- Ideas vs Impressions
- Two kinds of impressions
- Sense impressions
- Impressions coming from introspection
- All our ideas are copied from our impressions
- Cause and effect is a tricky one for David Hume
- What exactly do we see when observing a causal process?
- We don't see any "force" or "power" that causes effects
- Hume says we do experience
- That cause and effect are contiguous in space and time
- Causes occur prior to their effects
- There is a necessary connection between cause and effect
- Cannot have the cause without the effect
- But how do we experience a necessary connection?
- Hume's theory of causation is known as regularity theory
- All theories of causation accept that there are many regularities in the world, and that they have something to do with cause and effect
- Elizabeth Anscombe
- Responded to David Hume's ideas on causation
- Causation doesn't imply necessitation
- It can cause $B$ without necessitating $B$
- Necessity is a logical consequence, relative to the laws of physics
- Not a subjective relation that only exists in our minds