But though this conclusion concerning human ignorance be the
result of the strictest scrutiny of this subject, men still
entertain a strong propensity to believe, that they penetrate
further into the province of nature, and perceive something like a
necessary connexion between cause and effect. When, again, they
turn their reflections towards the operations of their own minds,
and _feel_ no such connexion between the motive and the action;
they are thence apt to suppose, that there is a difference between
the effects which result from material force, and those which arise
from thought and intelligence. But, being once convinced, that we
know nothing of causation of any kind, than merely the _constant
conjunction_ of objects, and the consequent _inference_ of the mind
from one to another, and finding that these two circumstances are
universally allowed to have place in voluntary actions; we may be
more easily led to own the same necessity common to all
causes."--(IV. pp. 107, 8.)
The last asylum of the hard-pressed advocate of the doctrine of uncaused
volition is usually, that, argue as you like, he has a profound and
ineradicable consciousness of what he calls the freedom of his will. But
Hume follows him even here, though only in a note, as if he thought the
extinction of so transparent a sophism hardly worthy of the dignity of
his text.
"The prevalence of the doctrine of liberty may be accounted for
from another cause, viz.
Pages:
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225