Quotation
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“All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of Cause and Effect.”
David Hume · Empiricism · Enlightenment · 1748
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the sentence as the next step after the fork: factual reasoning that goes beyond what one now sees or remembers runs on cause and effect. He will ask how that relation is known, and the answer will not be a demonstration. A rival reading thinks he is denying that causes exist. The sentence is about the foundation of our reasonings, and the Enquiry's account is custom, not the abolition of the relation; It stands in section 4, part 1.
Did David Hume really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Hume's own English in the Enquiry, section 4, part 1, just after the fork. Cause and effect is the relation by which we go beyond present sense and memory. The wording is secure.
Where it comes from
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section 4, part 1
Approximate date: 1748.
How to use it
A parent at a school gate in Exeter who infers an infection from a flushed face has left the present testimony of the senses and is using a causal story. Hume thinks that step is what factual reasoning is, and that it is not glued tight as a geometrical proof is. The pick-up can still be the right call; It is not a deduction from the flush alone, however familiar the inference feels.
A mindset reading
Founded on is not the same as exposed as a trick. He locates the nerve of factual inference in order to examine it. If cause is not rationally proved, it does not follow that the afternoon may contain anything; His conclusion is the opposite of recklessness: custom is a steady guide, and the examination should make people modest about remote causes, not casual about near ones.
Understand the philosophy
The key term is cause and effect, the relation by which the mind moves from one matter of fact to another beyond memory and the senses. Section 4 argues that the relation is not known a priori, since the contrary of a causal claim can be conceived. Custom is the Enquiry's later explanation of the inference. The English is his; The sentence is the hinge between the fork and the problem of induction.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the sentence as the next step after the fork: factual reasoning that goes beyond what one now sees or remembers runs on cause and effect. He will ask how that relation is known, and the answer will not be a demonstration. A rival reading thinks he is denying that causes exist. The sentence is about the foundation of our reasonings, and the Enquiry's account is custom, not the abolition of the relation; It stands in section 4, part 1.
Did David Hume really say this?
Well attested. Hume's own English in the Enquiry, section 4, part 1, just after the fork. Cause and effect is the relation by which we go beyond present sense and memory. The wording is secure.
Which work is it in?
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section 4, part 1 Approximate date: 1748.