大卫·休姆（David Hume）被称为经验主义者之一，认为没有天生的思想，所有知识都来自经验。休姆（Hume）对因果关系的关注开始了关于我们如何通过经验来学习因果的讨论。休ume开始讨论，得出结论，人类认为原因和效果的原因是因为习惯使人们看到两种类型的事件不断连接。
Hume determines that we can not gain a lot of knowledge from our experiences regarding causation. If we take two events, A and B, we can say that A causes B when they happen at the same time. If we have event A, we can also find event B, and because of consistency, we can argue that these events will continue to perpetuate. This is how Hume continues his discussion of causation to the Problem of Induction and that we can not just use inductive reasoning to make inferences about the world around us.
休ume的说法，归纳的问题提出了一个问题：“从归纳推论的未观察到的基础上可以忽略多少信息？”休ume通过提供一个问题来排除从归纳推断对因果和影响得出的结论的可能性，开始对归纳问题的怀疑论。他提出了有关归纳的两种类型的论点，“示范性”观点和“可能”的观点，但这些论点都没有努力。示出的论点产生了错误的结论，而可能的论点最终会循环。
Hume realizes the problems we have when asking questions about causation does not help explain how we can conclude without experiencing past events. One could argue that Hume’s argument of causation and the skeptic solution that he presents when discussing the Problem of Induction, gives ample reasoning for how consistency and experience can provide a better example for cause and effect.
休谟的观点继续当他论述了再保险lation between ideas and impressions. Hume states that “ultimately all our ideas could be traced back to the ‘impressions’ of sense experience,” which means that every idea we conceive comes from an experience (impression) that we have had prior[1]. Hume then takes this concept and applies it back to causation by stating that because of the consistency we experience, our impression of that experience is what creates an idea, because ideas are made up of our impressions, this is also known as Hume’sCopy Principle[2].
现在，休ume采用了我们自然的归纳推理的概念，并询问我们的经验是否可以作为我们周围世界的良好证据，换句话说：“我们可以理性地证明我们的实际实践是为了相信世界上对世界的不可观察的事物吗？3]” Hume turns to the concept he names, ‘Matter of Fact’. If something were to be deemed ‘true’ then it would be called a Matter of Fact, which is based on the knowledge that such contingent truths can only derive from our experiences. The principle of the uniformity of nature can’t be something we can conceive as being true because we can only use inductive logic/reasoning to provide evidence for our reality. Hume then states that this concept is ‘flagrantly circular’. It is again said by Hume, that there is no solution to the justification of inductive reasoning because it is too circular.
Hume’s next question was if there was a solution to be found for causation, and how could he ask the questions reliably enough to find the answer. Humans, by nature, can not stop using inductive reasoning because we are irrational. However, a human that was considered to be rational, would most likely not form any beliefs using induction, therefore we would never have to make generalizations about the future based on past events; such a being can not exist, though, because there would be too many complications surrounding this. Predictability is something those irrational human beings rely on to survive, “so nature, through the operation of custom and habit, has determined that we (irrational beings) draw from inductive inferences[4]”.
We can not predict the causes of things and or predict the outcomes of the future, but we can use the customs and habits that our minds have learned from our experiences. This idea introduces Hume’s final solution to this dilemma, known as the ‘skeptical solution’. This solution is explained as the following: humans will always draw from inferences, which is not a bad thing, because it is necessary. Hume claims that habit takes precedence over reason, and it becomes this ‘skeptic’ solution because it is “compatible with saying that we don’t have any reason for drawing these inferences[5]”.
这种方式被认为是这样的，因为我们对确定因果推断的原因持怀疑态度。休ume得出结论，他的论点是我们无法想象因果关系之间的联系，因为没有其他印象可以追溯到我们的想法。唯一可以肯定的是，有必要的联系吸引因果关系，只不过是这种确定性。
Hume’s entire argument surrounding the notions of cause and effect, inductive reasoning, and the skeptical solution all pave the way for how empiricist philosophers began to look at why certain events happen. Hume gave a probable answer to the question of what causes an event to occur by simply proving how we have to rely on induction as our primary source of rationale because we can not define a necessary connection when two events are happening one after the other.
参考书目
- “大卫·休姆。”Encyclopædia Britannica，百科全书Britannica，Inc.，https：//www.britannica.com/topic/epistemology/david-hume。
- Morris, William Edward, and Charlotte R. Brown. “David Hume.”Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy，斯坦福大学，2019年4月17日，https：//plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/。
- 亨德森，利亚。“归纳问题。”Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy，，，，
- 斯坦福大学，2018年3月21日，
- https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/induction-problem/#humeprob。
- Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy，，，，https://iep.utm.edu/hume-cau/.
- 休ume的归纳问题，，，，
- http://beisecker.faculty.unlv.edu//Courses/Phi-101/Induction.htm.
- “大学图书馆。”电子资源 - 登录，，，，https://www-jstor-org.libproxy.library.unt.edu/stable/188242?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents.
- 格林，迈克尔·J。“休ume的怀疑解决方案。”休ume的怀疑解决方案，http：//carneades.pomona.edu/2007-id1/nts-1011.shtml
