In Of Liberty and Necessity, David Hume argues that liberty and necessity (free will and determinism) are compatible. However, indeterminists disagree on this view. They believe that if events are causally necessary, then a person would not have free will to behave as they choose, and their actions would have been causally necessitated. Hume, on the other hand, believes in the constant conjunction of human actions, which is similar to how physical objects behave in nature. This belief enables him to expand his ideas toward the reconciliation of liberty and necessity. Liberty is not in conflict with necessity; it is the action in accordance to the determination of the will. I agree with Hume that human actions are based off of constant conjunction
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He argues against the indeterministic view by redefining the deterministic mindset. Determinism states that events, including human actions, are dictated by causes from sources other than the will. Therefore, the foundation of indeterminism consists with the idea that individuals have no free will. With this, Hume reasons that determinism does not rely on events being causally necessitated; it depends only on human perception of events as being so. He was able to reach this conclusion by suggesting that constant conjunction occurs in nature rather than necessary connection, and that the idea of necessity came from the perception of two events being connected. For instance, Hume mentions “that human nature remains still the same” (Hume 408) because the similar motives will elicit similar actions, and this is the same with events following causes. It is also said in the text that the actions of peculiar characters can be interpreted by looking back on past knowledge of motives. Having this support, Hume reimagines free will in order for it to be compatible with determinism. Since observations form constant conjunctions, human actions are actually free, but there is a pattern to them. Hume states that “mutual dependence of men is so great… that scarce any human action is entirely complete in itself…” (Hume 410). This meant that there are a variety of actions that humans perform to co-operate. For instance, the artificer expects the protection of the magistrate. These actions are taken from past experiences as men choose to execute them to accomplish a
He argues against the indeterministic view by redefining the deterministic mindset. Determinism states that events, including human actions, are dictated by causes from sources other than the will. Therefore, the foundation of indeterminism consists with the idea that individuals have no free will. With this, Hume reasons that determinism does not rely on events being causally necessitated; it depends only on human perception of events as being so. He was able to reach this conclusion by suggesting that constant conjunction occurs in nature rather than necessary connection, and that the idea of necessity came from the perception of two events being connected. For instance, Hume mentions “that human nature remains still the same” (Hume 408) because the similar motives will elicit similar actions, and this is the same with events following causes. It is also said in the text that the actions of peculiar characters can be interpreted by looking back on past knowledge of motives. Having this support, Hume reimagines free will in order for it to be compatible with determinism. Since observations form constant conjunctions, human actions are actually free, but there is a pattern to them. Hume states that “mutual dependence of men is so great… that scarce any human action is entirely complete in itself…” (Hume 410). This meant that there are a variety of actions that humans perform to co-operate. For instance, the artificer expects the protection of the magistrate. These actions are taken from past experiences as men choose to execute them to accomplish a