So far as we have yet seen, he has not in any way contradicted his
original supposition that we can know _some_ matters of fact, which we
have never ourselves observed. In the second theory, which I have just
stated, he does not call in question the view that I can know all such
matters of fact as I know to be causally connected with facts which
I have observed, nor the view that I can know some facts to be thus
causally connected. All that he has done is to question whether I can
know any _external_ fact to be causally connected with anything which
I observe; he would still allow that I may be able to know that future
states of my own, or past states, which I have forgotten, are causally
connected with those which I now observe or remember; and that I may
know therefore, in some cases, what I shall experience in the future,
or have experienced in the past but have now forgotten. But in some
parts of his work he does seem to question whether any man can know
even as much as this: he seems to question whether we can ever know any
fact whatever to be causally connected with any other fact. For, after
laying it down, as we saw above, that we cannot know any fact, A, to be
causally connected with another, B, unless we have experienced in the
past a constant conjunction between facts like A and facts like B, he
goes on to ask what foundation we have for the conclusion that A and B
_are_ causally connected, even when we _have_ in the past experienced
a constant conjunction between them. He points out that from the fact
that A has been constantly conjoined with B in the past, it does not
follow that it ever will be so again. It does not follow, therefore,
that the two really are causally connected in the sense that, when the
one occurs, the other _always_ will occur also. And he concludes, for
this and other reasons, that _no argument_ can assure us that, because
they have been constantly conjoined in the past, therefore they really
are causally connected. What, then, he asks, is the foundation for such
an inference? _Custom,_ he concludes, is the only foundation. It is
nothing but custom which induces us to believe that, because two facts
have been constantly conjoined on many occasions, therefore they will
be so on _all_ occasions. We have, therefore, no better foundation
than custom for any conclusion whatever as to facts which we have not
observed. And can we be said really to _know_ any fact, for which we
have no better foundation than this? Hume himself, it must be observed,
never says that we can't. But he has been constantly interpreted as if
the conclusion that we can't really know any one fact to be causally
connected with any other, did follow from this doctrine of his. And
there is, I think, certainly much excuse for this interpretation in the
tone in which he speaks. He does seem to suggest that a belief which is
_merely_ founded on custom, can scarcely be one which we _know_ to be
true.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account