David Hume
Scottish Enlightenment
He investigated how experience, habit, and feeling explain beliefs and judgments.
Historical context
The Treatise of Human Nature appeared between 1739 and 1740. Hume recast some of its arguments in the Enquiries on understanding and morals.
Overview
After repeatedly seeing one event follow another, we expect the sequence to recur. Custom explains that expectation and lets us ask what experience contributes to causal judgment.
Main claims
Causal inference arises from experience of regularities and from habit.
Debates and nuances
Custom explains our causal expectations even without a proof that they will be met.
This entry provides educational context.