preview

David Hume on Liberty or Freedom of Will

Decent Essays
Open Document

In Part I of Section VIII of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, philosopher David Hume discusses his position on the idea that human beings have liberty or freedom of will. He defends his position by suggesting that any opposition to his view must have sprung from the false supposition that one can perceive necessary connections in nature. Hume’s position connects to his general views on causation because he believes that our ideas of necessary connection and causation result only from the observation of constant conjunction between events and a certain determination of the mind. He thinks that his theory is the only one that can provide a coherent account of human motivation because he writes that liberty should be contrasted with constraint instead of necessity. Ultimately, Hume claims that liberty does not depend on actions being disconnected from their motives, and that it means that actions depend on determinations of the will. Hume defends his position on free will by insinuating that any opposition to it has materialized from the false supposition that one can perceive necessary connections in nature. He says that inferences in regard to human nature are based solely on the observation of what he calls “constant conjunction”, meaning the observation that two events seem to go together quite frequently. (Hume 61). As a result, one would would strongly deny that any kind of necessity governs his actions. However, Hume argues that if we accept that we observe

Get Access