The secret connexion : causation, realism, and David Hume / Galen Strawson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Strawson, Galen, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hume, David, 1711-1776.

Hume, David.

Causation.

Physical Description:

xv, 246 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

Revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2014.

Summary:

In this revised and updated edition of The Secret Connexion. Galen Strawson explores one of the most discussed subjects in all philosophy: David Hume's work on causation. Strawson challenges the standard view of Hume, according to which he thinks that there is no such thing as causal influence, and that there is nothing more to causation than things of one kind regularly following things of another kind. He argues that Hume does believe in causal influence, but insists that we cannot know its nature. The regularity theory of causation is indefensible, and Hume never adopted it in any case. 'a comprehensive and persuasively argued position ... exceptionally well written.' International Studies in Philosophy 'thoroughly convincing' London Review of Books 'beautifully argued' Times Literary Supplement 'it stretched me till I twanged' Craig Raine, Observer 'His style is lively, even impassioned. Best of all, he shares the reader's amusement at his own fevered combing of the text.' Australian Journal of Philosophy Book jacket.

Contents:

Part 1 Meaning, Scepticism, and Reality

1 Introduction 3

2 The 'Humean' view of causation; and an exegetical principle 9

3 A summary of the argument 14

4 'Objects': preliminaries 19

5 The untenability of the realist regularity theory of causation 22

6 'Objects': complications 32

6.1 Strict idealism 32

6.2 Perception-constituted objects and perception-content-constituted objects 35

6.3 A viable regularity theory of causation 40

6.4 Hume uncommitted 41

6.5 Supposing and conceiving 44

6.6 Basic realism 52

6.7 Bundles and fiction 57

6.8 Hume in metaphysical space 58

6.9 Writing as a realist 59

Appendix Cartoon-film causation: idealism and the regularity theory of causation 60

7 The notion of the ultimate nature of reality 65

Appendix Reality and truth 75

8 'Causation' 87

9 Hume's strict scepticism 95

10 Hume's theory of ideas as applied to the idea of causation 102

11 The 'AP' property 108

11.1 The curious idea of a priori causal inference 108

11.2 An objection 110

11.3 The objection varied 112

12 The problem of meaning 115

12.1 The 'Meaning Tension' 115

12.2 Experience-transcendent reference: E-intelligibility and R-intelligibility 120

12.3 Example: Hume on the mind 123

12.4 Conclusion 125

13 'External objects' and Causation 128

13.1 The parallel 128

13.2 A possible disanalogy 129

13.3 An objection 131

Part 2 Causation in the Treatise

14 Causation in the Treatise: 1 137

14.1 Introduction 137

14.2 Referring uses of Causation terms 138

15 Causation in the Treatise: 2 142

15.1 Three stratagems 142

15.2 Ignorance, irony, and rality 144

15.3 Hume's global subjectivism about necessity 147

15.4 The 'necessity, which we ascribe'; the 'necessity, which we conceive 150

15.5 'So far as we have any notion of it' 153

15.6 Conclusion 158

Part 3 Causation in the Enquiry

16 Enquiry Section 4: the question of irony 165

17 Enquiry Section 4: Causation and inductive scepticism 169

18 Enquiry Sections 5-6: undiscovered and undiscoverable 171

19 Enquiry Section 7: Causation and human beings 176

19.1 Will and force: a last look a irony 176

19.2 Resemblance, solidity, and force 180

19.3 A rhetorical question 181

20 Enquiry Section 7: the Occasionalists 183

21 Enquiry Section 7: the two definitions of cause 188

21.1 Extraordinary ignorance 188

21.2 The two definitions 190

21.3 Conclusion 197

Part 4 Reason, Reality, and Regularity

22 Reason, Reality, and Regularity 201

22.1 A summary of Hume's position 201

22.2 The general form off the argument for Causation 203

Appendix The Contingent Reality of Natural Necessity 210

23 The meaning of 'cause' 215

23.1 Content: experience and concepts 215

23.2 The 'Anscombean' approach 220

23.3 The wisdom of nature 223

23.4 Causation: a non-sensory property 230.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199605842

019960584X

0199605858

9780199605859

OCLC:

864787428