ABSTRACT
David Hume considers the probability of chances, because he thinks that its nature throws light on the probability of causes, which is a more important question, and plainly more germane to the general issue he is dealing with. Hume thinks that the reflective type of probability judgement is far more common in our reasoning. The probability of causes therefore only yields a conclusion about a particular event by the aid of the probability of chances. The psychological contentions consist in a description of the inner psychological mechanisms connecting the outer conditions with the utterance of the probability statement. This chapter examines probability, or rational belief, is an idea enlivened by a present impression and steadied and fortified against rival ideas by its being conceived in accordance with a habit, and in some cases by the fusion of ideas of similar cases.
