ABSTRACT
Whatever the merits of the negative phase of Hume’s discussion of causality, the point of it is clear. It is an attempt to show both:
That there is nothing in any object, consider’d in itself, which can afford us a reason for drawing a conclusion beyond it; and, That even after the observation of the frequent or constant conjunction of objects, we have no reason to draw any inference concerning any object beyond those of which we have had experience. (p. 139)
Hume concludes that the inference from the observed to the unobserved is therefore not a transition that ‘reason determines us to make’, and so its source must be sought elsewhere.
