PHL105Y December 1, 2004

1
PHL105YDecember 1, 2004

• For Monday, finish up to the end of section 8 of
  Humes Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding.
• Our term test is next Wednesday review materials
  are on the web. Anyone who has a hellish
  Wednesday can write the advance make-up test on
  Monday, December 6 at 410 pm. No advance
  arrangements required just show up at my office
  (285 North Building) around 4 to get the test.
• For Fridays tutorial, write a page about either
  question (1) Does Hume think you can get the
  idea of causal power by noticing what happens
  when you will yourself to clench your fist? Or
  (2) What does Hume mean when on p.51 he says we
  have no idea of this connexion? How can he say
  that?

2
Section 7

• Of the idea of
• necessary connection

3
The copy principle, again

• all our ideas are nothing but copies of our
  impressions it is impossible for us to think of
  any thing, which we have not antecedently felt,
  either by our external or internal senses (41)

4
The copy principle, again

• Even complex invented ideas (with no
  corresponding complex impressions), are
  ultimately composed of simple ideas, and so can
  ultimately be traced back to simple impressions
  Hume thinks that going back to the original
  impressions can cast light on any complex idea

5
What about the idea of causation?

• What impression, or set of impressions, gives
  rise to the idea of power (or cause, or necessary
  connection)?
• When we see one billiard ball hit another, do we
  see (or smell, or hear) the causation, or do we
  just see the balls?

6
What impression gives rise to the idea of
causation?

• The sensible qualities of things dont give us
  any idea of whether or how they will be causes
• solidity, extension, motion these qualities are
  all complete in themselves, and never point out
  any other event which may result from them

7
Where do we get our idea of causation?

• The scenes of the universe are continually
  shifting, and one object follows another in an
  uninterrupted succession but the power or force,
  which actuates the whole machine, is entirely
  concealed from us, and never discovers itself in
  any of the sensible qualities of body. (42)

8
Where do we get our idea of causation?

• If we dont get it from observing nature external
  to us, do we get it from within?
• Do I gain the idea of power or causation by
  looking within at what goes on in me when, say, I
  will my hand to move?

9
Not from within

• The motion of our body follows upon the command
  of our will. Of this we are every moment
  conscious. But the means, by which this is
  effected the energy, by which the will performs
  so extraordinary an operation, of this we are so
  far from being immediately conscious, that it
  must for ever escape our most diligent enquiry.
  (43)

10
Why not from within?

• If we could see the way the will moves the
  body, wed understand the mind-body relationship
  (which we dont)
• If we could see the way the will moves the
  body, wed immediately understand how it is my
  will can move my hand but not my heart or kidneys

11
Why not from within?

• Perhaps we get the idea of power from looking at
  the minds control of its thoughts (rather than
  the minds control of the body)

12
Why not from within?

• Perhaps we get the idea of power from looking at
  the minds control of its thoughts (rather than
  the minds control of the body)
• But are we really acquainted with whatever it is
  in us that controls our thoughts? Do we really
  see it working?

13
Why not from within?

• Perhaps we get the idea of power from looking at
  the minds control of its thoughts (rather than
  the minds control of the body)
• ..and furthermore, our power over our thoughts is
  very limited, and comes and goes in various ways
  (which suggests were not directly seeing that
  power)

14
So, where do we get the idea from?
15
So, where do we get the idea from?

• Single observations of causation just show us one
  event, then the other, without making the bond
  between them visible

16
So, where do we get the idea from?

• Single observations of causation just show us one
  event, then the other, without making the bond
  between them visible
• But what about repeated observations of events of
  type A followed by events of type B?
• (How could repetition yield anything new?)

17
So, where do we get the idea from?

• After repeated observations of events of type A
  followed by events of type B, the mind is
  conscious of something new the mind itself has
  changed, following the course of experience, and
  feels the force of custom or habit pushing it to
  think of B when it sees A

18
What happens after repetition

• there is nothing in a number of instances,
  different from every single instance, which is
  supposed to be exactly similar except only, that
  after a repetition of similar instances, the mind
  is carried by habit, upon the appearance of one
  event, to expect its usual attendant, and to
  believe, that it will exist. The connexion,
  therefore, which we feel in the mind, this
  customary transition of the imagination from one
  object to its usual attendant, is the sentiment
  or impression, from which we form the idea of
  power or necessary connection. (50)

19
What we really mean when we say A causes B

• When we say, therefore, that one object is
  connected with another, we mean only, that they
  have acquired a connection in our thought.
  (50-51)

20
What we really mean when we say A causes B

• When we say, therefore, that one object is
  connected with another, we mean only, that they
  have acquired a connection in our thought.
  (50-51)
• Is that a sceptical position?

21
Our surprising ignorance

• And what stronger instance can be produced of
  the surprising ignorance and weakness of the
  understanding, than the present? For surely, if
  there be any relation among objects, which it
  imports to us to know perfectly, it is that of
  cause and effect. On this are founded all our
  reasonings concerning matter of fact and
  existence. (51)