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HUME'S "TWO DEFINITIONS" OF CAUSE AND THE ONTOLOGY OF "DOUBLE EXISTENCE" Throughout this paper my objective will be to establish and clarify Hume's original intentions in his discussion of causation in Book I of the Treatise. I will show that Hume's views on ontology, presented in Part IV of that book, shed light on his views on causation as presented in Part III. Further, I will argue that Hume's views on ontology account for the original motivation behind his two definitions of 2 cause. This relationship between Hume's ontology and his account of causation explains something which has baffled Hume scholars for some time,- namely, why does Hume's discussion of causation in I, iii, 14 have such a paradoxical air about it? I will show that Hume's views on causation have a paradoxical air about them because they rest on an ontology of "double existence" - an ontology which Hume describes as the monstrous offspring of two principles, which are contrary to each other, which are both at once embrac'd by the mind, and which are unable mutually to destroy each other (T 215) My interpretation will centre on the following two claims: (i) When Hume wrote Section 14, Of the idea of necessary connexion, he was primarily concerned to attack the view that the origin of our idea of necessity was to be discovered in the operations of matter or bodies. Of the suggested sources from which our idea of necessity could be thought to originate this is the source which, initially, interested Hume the most. It is, therefore, of great importance that we interpret Hume's remarks in light of this fact. (ii) Hume offers the first definition of cause as an account of causation as it exists in the material world independent of our thought and reasoning.He offers the second definition as an account of causation as we find it in our perceptions. It will also be argued, in this context, that necessity constitutes "an essential part" of both of Hume's two definitions of cause. In A Letter from a Gentleman Hume briefly describes the debate out of which his own views about the origin of our idea of necessity developed: When men considered the several effects and operations of nature, they were led to examine into the force or power by which they were performed . . . all the ancient philosophers agreed, that there was a real force in matter . . . No one, till Descartes and Malebranche, ever entertained an opinion that matter had no force. . . These philosophers last-mentioned substituted the notion of occasional causes. . . [se. But this opinion] never gained great credit, especially in England,where it was considered as too much contrary to received popular opinions, and too little supported by philosophical arguments, ever to be admitted as any thing but a mere hypothesis. 3 These remarks are indicative of the fact that Hume believed that there was a close connection between ontological issues and the question concerning the origin of our idea of necessity. In what way did Hume believe that these matters were related? In Section 14 Hume returns to the question which he raised in Section 2 (T 77); from what impression does our idea of necessary connexion originate?Hume is faced with the difficulty that given his theory of meaning if no such impression can be found then this term must be meaningless.Hume comes to consider three possible sources of our idea of necessity before presenting his own account.These are: (1) the known qualities of matter (T 157-9); (2) the deity (T 159-60); and (3) the will fi: 632-3 - this being appended to T 161) . The most obvious difference between the section entitled Of the idea of necessary connexion in the Treatise and its counterpart in the first Enquiry is that the former is mostly concerned with the first suggested source of our idea of necessity whereas the latter places the most emphasis on the third source. That is, in the Treatise Hume is primarily concerned to refute the claim that our idea has its source in the known qualities of matter while in the Enquiry he is...

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