Publisher's Synopsis
It is widely supposed that David Hume (1711-1776) invented the regularity theory of causation, holding that causal relations are nothing but a matter of one type of thing being regularly followed by another. It is also widely supposed that he was quite right about this, and that it was one of his greatest contributions to philosophy.;Galen Strawson argues in this book that the regularity theory of causation is indefensible, and that Hume never adopted it in any case. He explains that Hume did not claim that causation in the natural world is just a matter of regular succession, as such a dogmatic metaphysical claim about the nature of reality would have been utterly contrary to his fundamental philosophical principles. The author concludes that Hume claimed only that the regularity of succession was all that we could ever know of causation.
