Hume´s Principle

Hume's project aimed at the discovery of the principles of human nature, and among these the most important in most respects is not association of ideas, but the one he calls "custom or habit." But what is the real nature of Hume's principle? It would be philosophically naïve to...

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Main Author: João Paulo Gomes Monteiro
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina 1999-12-01
Series:Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/18347/17195
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author João Paulo Gomes Monteiro
author_facet João Paulo Gomes Monteiro
author_sort João Paulo Gomes Monteiro
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description Hume's project aimed at the discovery of the principles of human nature, and among these the most important in most respects is not association of ideas, but the one he calls "custom or habit." But what is the real nature of Hume's principle? It would be philosophically naïve to decide that Hume's concept of habit simply reproduces the dominant conception. In the latter the main element is time, and the possibility of habit depending only on repetition is absent in the tradition, from Aristotle to Berkeley. When Hume proposes to explain causal inference by habit, he uses this word as tantamount to the old principle of induction by simple enumeration, which may depend only on repetition, the element of time being reduced to the strict minimum necessary for the repetition to occur. Hume's principle of causal knowledge is really a new principle, not the old "psychological" tendency called custom or habit, and his attempt tacitly was to change the very essence of the concept involved.
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spelling doaj.art-8336096307214e6d9c51aa76c21655222022-12-21T18:34:13ZengUniversidade Federal de Santa CatarinaPrincipia: An International Journal of Epistemology1414-42471808-17111999-12-01032165186Hume´s PrincipleJoão Paulo Gomes MonteiroHume's project aimed at the discovery of the principles of human nature, and among these the most important in most respects is not association of ideas, but the one he calls "custom or habit." But what is the real nature of Hume's principle? It would be philosophically naïve to decide that Hume's concept of habit simply reproduces the dominant conception. In the latter the main element is time, and the possibility of habit depending only on repetition is absent in the tradition, from Aristotle to Berkeley. When Hume proposes to explain causal inference by habit, he uses this word as tantamount to the old principle of induction by simple enumeration, which may depend only on repetition, the element of time being reduced to the strict minimum necessary for the repetition to occur. Hume's principle of causal knowledge is really a new principle, not the old "psychological" tendency called custom or habit, and his attempt tacitly was to change the very essence of the concept involved.http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/18347/17195Reasoncustomhabitcauseinference
spellingShingle João Paulo Gomes Monteiro
Hume´s Principle
Principia: An International Journal of Epistemology
Reason
custom
habit
cause
inference
title Hume´s Principle
title_full Hume´s Principle
title_fullStr Hume´s Principle
title_full_unstemmed Hume´s Principle
title_short Hume´s Principle
title_sort hume´s principle
topic Reason
custom
habit
cause
inference
url http://www.periodicos.ufsc.br/index.php/principia/article/view/18347/17195
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