david hume's criticisms
scottish philosopher
argued that inductive reasoning and belief in causality cannot be justified rationally; instead, they result from custom and mental habit
we cannot know anything about cause & effect:
- Hume's Argument on Cause and Effect:
- Hume contended that assuming B follows from A as proof may not be valid, as there could be various other reasons.
- Lack of Evidence for Cause and Effect:
- Hume argued that there is no concrete evidence establishing a direct link between cause and effect.
- Assumptions and Mistakes:
- Making assumptions about cause and effect is a human tendency, and it's prone to error.
- Correlation vs. Causation:
- Merely observing that A is followed by B doesn't necessarily prove that A causes B; our tendency to assume causation is attributed to 'habit.'
no experience of previous universes:
- Limitations in Knowledge:
- We lack direct experiences of universes being created.
- Scope of Human Knowledge:
- Knowledge about causes within the universe doesn't authorise us to determine the cause of the entire universe.
- Nature of Claims:
- Any claim about cause and effect is, according to this perspective, a product of human mental invention.
- Bertrand Russell's Analogy:
- Bertrand Russell's analogy emphasises that individual instances (humans having mothers) don't necessarily extend to the totality (the human race having a mother).
- Caution in Generalisation:
- The idea that individual things have individual causes doesn't automatically imply that the entirety of existence has a singular cause.
why can’t the universe be eternal?
- Hume's Critique of Aquinas' Third Way:
- Hume criticises Aquinas' Third Way, which posits that everything in the universe is contingent and dependent on God for its cause and ongoing existence.
- Aquinas' Assertion:
- Aquinas suggests that the nature of contingent things necessitates a necessary being to explain their existence.
- Hume's Alternative View:
- Hume challenges this by proposing that a necessary being could be anything, including the universe itself.
- Possibility of an Eternal Universe:
- Hume raises the possibility that the universe might be eternal and the cause of all things within it, countering Aquinas' emphasis on an external necessary being.
rejection of the Christian God as the necessary being:
like causes will have the effects ie finite causes will have finite effects
ff that is the case Hume asks would it not be more logical to suggest a world created by male and female gods who are born and who will die rather than the One God? – based on our experience?
We should not look to a creator that is unlike its creation.
leibniz counter argument: even if everything moved the next thing in an infinite chain, there would still need to be an explanation to the whole chain’s existence
aquinas counter argument: God is (and indeed surely must be) of a totally different order, and is thus not bound by the same rules/laws of the world. He is not a thing like other things in the universe that need to be caused into existence