David Hume: A Famous Philosopher

David Hume is a renowned Philosopher that has shaped the ideas of cause and effect (causality) as we know them today. He suggested that true cause and effect relationship has to be the result of A causing B. The occurrence of B happening is contingent on the fact that A occurs before B, thus causing B to happen. Since he holds that this is the only rational way to conclude that one thing causes another to happen, he goes as far as to say that human beings will never know the exact cause that takes place in order for B to be the result. Hume comes to this conclusion because he maintains that there are secrete causes that cannot be observed by the human eye, thus it is impossible for humans to rationally conclude that one thing caused another
Hume is an Empiricist, this means that he believes that the source of a humans knowledge derives from or mostly from their sensory experiences. In short, people gain knowledge from their experiences. For example, children learn languages through constantly hearing someone (a parent or guardian) speaking to them in a certain language. Another example is that one can come to know what different colors are due to actually seeing the colors. Simply knowing the name of a color does not entail that someone knows what the color actually looks like. One can never fully come to know what a color is by simply being given the definition because in order to know what a color is, one must have a visual of the color to connect with the name. Thus according to Hume, a person learns and obtains knowledge through sensory
Things that constitute Matters of Fact can be rejected without that rejection resulting in a contradiction. In short, these objects of human reason are not certain and can not be derived from logically or rationally reflecting on a concept. With this being said, Matters of Fact can be understood to be those things that are a posteriori, which means knowledge or justifications that can is dependent upon experience or empirical evidence. An example of a Matter of Fact is the statement that Earth is the third planet from the sun. One can not know this fact by simply reflecting on Earth and the solar system. There is nothing about the Earth or the solar system that is contingent upon the Earth to be the third plant from the sun. As a result, no one can know that the Earth is the third planet from the sun without viewing with a telescope that this happening is the case. Another example of this is the statement that it is raining outside. One can not simply reflect on the concept of rain to conclude that it is raining outside. Hence, in order to know that it is raining outside one has to go to the door or window to observe that it is raining outside. In addition to this, if someone where to reject the fact that it is raining outside, that rejection has an equal ability of being true or false upon that person’s observation of it raining outside. Though