Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author — David Hume — John Shaqi
Philosophical Works, v. 1 (of 4): Including All the Essays, and Exhibiting the More Important Alterations and Corrections in the Successive Editions Published by the Author
David Hume · en
'Twill only be proper, before we leave this subject, to draw some
corollaries from it, by which we may remove several prejudices and
popular errors that have very much prevailed in philosophy. First,
we may learn, from the foregoing doctrine, that all causes are of
the same kind, and that, in particular, there is no foundation for
that distinction which we sometimes make betwixt efficient causes,
and causes _sine qua non_; or betwixt efficient causes, and formal,
and material, and exemplary, and final causes. For as our idea of
efficiency is derived from the constant conjunction of two objects,
wherever this is observed, the cause is efficient; and where it is not,
there can never be a cause of any kind. For the same reason we must
reject the distinction betwixt _cause_ and _occasion_, when supposed to
signify any thing essentially different from each other. If constant
conjunction be implied in what we call occasion, 'tis a real cause; if
not, 'tis no relation at all, and cannot give rise to any argument or
reasoning.
Secondly, the same course of reasoning will make us conclude, that
there is but one kind of _necessity_, as there is but one kind of
cause, and that the common distinction betwixt _moral_ and _physical_
necessity is without any foundation in nature. This clearly appears
from the precedent explication of necessity. 'Tis the constant
conjunction of objects, along with the determination of the mind, which
constitutes a physical necessity: and the removal of these is the same
thing with _chance_. As objects must either be conjoined or not, and as
the mind must either be determined or not to pass from one object to
another, 'tis impossible to admit of any medium betwixt chance and an
absolute necessity. In weakening this conjunction and determination you
do not change the nature of the necessity; since even in the operation
of bodies, these have different degrees of constancy and force, without
producing a different species of that relation.
The distinction, which we often make betwixt _power_ and the _exercise_
of it, is equally without foundation.