Hume’s Laws of Association
Association
of Ideas Only:
– Law of resemblance
•Thoughts run naturally
from
one idea to similar ideas
– Law of
contiguity
•One object causes other objects encountered at
the same time to be
remembered
– Law of Cause
and effect
•Effects bring up events
that come before
Arranged by Gordon Vessels, Ed.D. 2004
“There is a
secret tie or union among particular ideas, which causes the mind to conjoin them
more frequently together, and makes the one, upon its appearance, introduce the
other.” Hume, David (1739).
Treatise of Human Nature. Edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge, 2nd
Ed.by P.H. Nidditch, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.
“Hume locates ‘three principles of connexion’ or association: resemblance, contiguity, and cause and effect. Of the three, causation is the only principle that takes us ‘beyond the evidence of our memory and senses.’ It establishes a link or connection between past and present experiences
with
events that we predict or
explain, so that ‘all reasonings
concerning matters
of fact seem to be founded
on the relation of cause
and effect.’”
Hume, David (1748). Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. In Enquiries
Concerning Human Understanding and Concerning the Principles of Morals (1975). Edited by L. A. Selby-Bigge, 3rd
edition revised by P. H. Nidditch, Oxford:
Clarendon Press.