Causation, Necessary Connection, and Power
This chapter analyzes Hume'theory of causation and its connection with the associated notions of necessary connection and power. It is divided into five parts. The first two deal respectively with the negative and positive phases of Hume's account. The former is the critique of the objectivist view, according to which necessary connection is a relation that holds between things independently of their relation to the human mind. The latter is Hume's subjectivist alternative, according to which necessary connection is a determination of the mind, which it projects onto things. The third part examines Hume's account of how this projection occurs, thereby creating the erroneous belief that necessary connection is an objective feature of the world. The fourth analyzes Hume's two definitions of ’cause’. The fifth explores some of salient similarities and differences between the views of Hume and Kant on causation.
Keywords: cause, mind force, power, necessary connection
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