ABSTRACT
"David Hume's conclusion," according to Roger Woolhouse, is "that so far as the external objects which are causes and effects are concerned there is only constant conjunction"; so far as the "operations of natural bodies" are concerned, "regularity and constant conjunction are all that exist". When Hume talks of 'objects' he usually means genuinely external objects, in a sense to be explained. Sometimes, however, he only means to refer to mental occurrences, or what he calls 'perceptions', and it may be suggested that this is always so: that he only means to refer to the 'immediate', mental objects of experience, in talking of objects. For an external object is by hypothesis an essentially non–mental thing, and is obviously of an entirely different species from an essentially mental thing like an impression and an idea. Hume himself takes it that it is true, for the belief that it is true is part of natural belief.
