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Single Idea 2232

[filed under theme 28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / c. Teleological Proof critique ]

Full Idea

If we infer a cause from an effect, we must proportion the one to the other. …a body of ten ounces raised in a scale proves the counterbalance exceeds ten ounces, but not that it exceeds a hundred.

Gist of Idea

You can't infer the cause to be any greater than its effect

Source

David Hume (Enquiry Conc Human Understanding [1748], XI.105)

Book Ref

Hume,David: 'Enquiries Conc. Human Understanding, Morals', ed/tr. Selby-Bigge/Nidditch [OUP 1975], p.136

The 85 ideas from 'Enquiry Conc Human Understanding'

3661 'Natural beliefs' are unavoidable, whatever our judgements [Hume, by Strawson,G]
3902 Hume mistakenly lumps sensations and perceptions together as 'impressions' [Scruton on Hume]
6350 Premises can support an argument without entailing it [Pollock/Cruz on Hume]
8344 At first Hume said qualities are the causal entities, but later he said events [Hume, by Davidson]
15249 Hume never shows how a strong habit could generate the concept of necessity [Harré/Madden on Hume]
8339 Hume's regularity theory of causation is epistemological; he believed in some sort of natural necessity [Hume, by Strawson,G]
4636 All reasoning concerning matters of fact is based on analogy (with similar results of similar causes) [Hume]
13602 We cannot form an idea of a 'power', and the word is without meaning [Hume]
8422 Cause is where if the first object had not been, the second had not existed [Hume]
17712 General ideas are the connection by resemblance to some particular [Hume]
23631 Hume is loose when he says perceptions of different strength are different species [Reid on Hume]
2182 Impressions are our livelier perceptions, Ideas the less lively ones [Hume]
2184 All ideas are copies of impressions [Hume]
2183 We can only invent a golden mountain by combining experiences [Hume]
2185 The idea of an infinite, intelligent, wise and good God arises from augmenting the best qualities of our own minds [Hume]
2186 We cannot form the idea of something we haven't experienced [Hume]
23421 If a person had a gap in their experience of blue shades, they could imaginatively fill it in [Hume]
2187 If we suspect that a philosophical term is meaningless, we should ask what impression it derives from [Hume]
2189 All ideas are connected by Resemblance, Contiguity in time or place, and Cause and Effect [Hume]
3662 Hume says we can only know constant conjunctions, not that that's what causation IS [Hume, by Strawson,G]
2191 Relations of ideas are known by thought, independently from the world [Hume]
2190 All objects of enquiry are Relations of Ideas, or Matters of Fact [Hume]
2192 All reasoning about facts is causal; nothing else goes beyond memory and senses [Hume]
2194 How could Adam predict he would drown in water or burn in fire? [Hume]
2193 No causes can be known a priori, but only from experience of constant conjunctions [Hume]
2195 We can discover some laws of nature, but never its ultimate principles and causes [Hume]
2196 The observation of human blindness and weakness is the result of all philosophy [Hume]
2197 Reason assists experience in discovering laws, and in measuring their application [Hume]
2198 We assume similar secret powers behind similar experiences, such as the nourishment of bread [Hume]
3598 Hume just shows induction isn't deduction [Williams,M on Hume]
2200 All experimental conclusions assume that the future will be like the past [Hume]
2199 Reason cannot show why reliable past experience should extend to future times and remote places [Hume]
2702 Only madmen dispute the authority of experience [Hume]
2201 Induction can't prove that the future will be like the past, since induction assumes this [Hume]
2202 Fools, children and animals all learn from experience [Hume]
2203 If we infer causes from repetition, this explains why we infer from a thousand objects what we couldn't infer from one [Hume]
2204 All inferences from experience are effects of custom, not reasoning [Hume]
2205 You couldn't reason at all if you lacked experience [Hume]
2206 Reasons for belief must eventually terminate in experience, or they are without foundation [Hume]
2208 Belief is just a particular feeling attached to ideas of objects [Hume]
2207 Belief can't be a concept plus an idea, or we could add the idea to fictions [Hume]
2209 Belief is stronger, clearer and steadier than imagination [Hume]
2210 A picture of a friend strengthens our idea of him, by resemblance [Hume]
8544 Hume does not distinguish real resemblances among degrees of resemblance [Shoemaker on Hume]
2211 When I am close to (contiguous with) home, I feel its presence more nearly [Hume]
2212 An object made by a saint is the best way to produce thoughts of him [Hume]
2213 Beliefs are built up by resemblance, contiguity and causation [Hume]
2214 Our awareness of patterns of causation is too important to be left to slow and uncertain reasoning [Hume]
2215 There is no such thing as chance [Hume]
2216 We transfer the frequency of past observations to our future predictions [Hume]
8341 Hume never even suggests that there is no such thing as causation [Hume, by Strawson,G]
2217 When definitions are pushed to the limit, only experience can make them precise [Hume]
2218 In observing causes we can never observe any necessary connections or binding qualities [Hume]
2220 Only experience teaches us about our wills [Hume]
4771 In both of Hume's definitions, causation is extrinsic to the sequence of events [Psillos on Hume]
5194 Hume's definition of cause as constantly joined thoughts can't cover undiscovered laws [Ayer on Hume]
2221 A cause is either similar events following one another, or an experience always suggesting a second experience [Hume]
2222 The doctrine of free will arises from a false sensation we have of freedom in many actions [Hume]
2223 Liberty is merely acting according to the will, which anyone can do if they are not in chains [Hume]
2225 If you deny all necessity and causation, then our character is not responsible for our crime [Hume]
2226 Repentance gets rid of guilt, which shows that responsibility arose from the criminal principles in the mind [Hume]
2224 Praise and blame can only be given if an action proceeds from a person's character and disposition [Hume]
3655 Hume makes determinism less rigid by removing the necessity from causation [Trusted on Hume]
10328 We think testimony matches reality because of experience, not some a priori connection [Hume]
2228 All experience must be against a supposed miracle, or it wouldn't be called 'a miracle' [Hume]
2227 A miracle violates laws which have been established by continuous unchanging experience, so should be ignored [Hume]
2229 To establish a miracle the falseness of the evidence must be a greater miracle than the claimed miraculous event [Hume]
2230 Good testimony needs education, integrity, motive and agreement [Hume, by PG]
2232 You can't infer the cause to be any greater than its effect [Hume]
2233 No government has ever suffered by being too tolerant of philosophy [Hume]
4772 If a singular effect is studied, its cause can only be inferred from the types of events involved [Hume]
2234 It is only when two species of thing are constantly conjoined that we can infer one from the other [Hume]
2235 There is no certain supreme principle, or infallible rule of inference [Hume]
2236 Examples of illusion only show that sense experience needs correction by reason [Hume]
2237 It never occurs to people that they only experience representations, not the real objects [Hume]
2238 Reason can never show that experiences are connected to external objects [Hume]
2239 If secondary qualities (e.g. hardness) are in the mind, so are primary qualities like extension [Hume]
7700 We can't think about the abstract idea of triangles, but only of particular triangles [Hume]
2240 It is a very extravagant aim of the sceptics to destroy reason and argument by means of reason and argument [Hume]
2241 The main objection to scepticism is that no good can come of it [Hume]
2242 Mitigated scepticism draws attention to the limitations of human reason, and encourages modesty [Hume]
2243 Mitigated scepticism sensibly confines our enquiries to the narrow capacity of human understanding [Hume]
2245 A priori it looks as if a cause could have absolutely any effect [Hume]
2246 If books don't relate ideas or explain facts, commit them to the flames [Hume]
2244 It can never be a logical contradiction to assert the non-existence of something thought to exist [Hume]