David Hume was one of the most influential philosophers of modern times. Hume argued that man gains knowledge through experience and that we should be skeptical of all other knowledge. Hume analyzed various aspects of life, but was probably best recognized for his theory of causality. Hume set up criteria for determining cause and effect. These criteria explained his skepticism about causality and why he came to the conclusion that humans were not capable of discovering truth.

In order to fully understand Hume's analysis of causality, we must first understand the importance he placed on the senses. Hume is skeptical of all that is not in some way connected to our senses. Hume separated human perceptions into two distinct categories: impressions and ideas. Impressions include sensations and emotions. They are original and more forceful and lively than ideas. They are what we see, hear, feel, love or hate. Ideas are copies or reflections of impressions and are less lively than the original impression. For example, if I place my hand on a hot pan and feel the heat, I have an impression. Later, when I go over the experience in my thoughts, I may recall the heat, I may rem

Hume's skepticism is derived from his belief that there are no innate ideas and that all ideas must come out of experience. Hume argues that in order for the third criteria to be determined we must be able to predict the future, which of course is not possible. We can not experience something that will occur in the future and therefore cannot ever determine causality. Hume examined the validity of other philosophers' argument for causality, such as that of John Locke. He argued that Locke had made the assumption that every object must have a cause, and that that opinion of the necessity of a cause is only derived from observation and experience. Through our experience we become aware of repeated patterns of items constantly conjoined in the past. When this happens repeatedly we then believe that the two are causally related. For example, if a ball is thrown up into the air, we assume that the ball will eventually fall back towards the earth. We have not experienced an instance when the ball has not fallen, and therefore consider the two to be causally connected. This procedure, however, requires the assumption that nature is uniform. Hume insisted that there is nothing we can discover from our experiences that tells us that nature will remain constant, and therefore can never be sure that the future will be the same as the past, no matter how uniform our experiences might be.

ember the burning pain, but I cannot truly experience the sensation again. That reflection upon my experience is an idea. Hume also believed that there are simple and complex impressions and ideas. The impression of the color red, for example, is si

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