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| Question | Answer |
| Where did David Hume write his views against Thomas Aquinas' Cosmological argument? | Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. |
| Outline Hume's fallacy of composition and use a quote in reference to his viewpoint. | The fallacy of composition states that the universe does not necessarily have to rely on a single cause. Put simply the argument refutes the idea that the relationship of cause and effect does not have to follow a series of other the events that will inevitably end up in a single cause; "The whole you say wants a cause, uniting these parts into a whole is performed merely by an arbitrary act of mind." A more sufficient explanation would be to be satisfied with the idea of the "explanation of individual parts" - rather than having the need to question the existence of the whole. |
| What does Hume write in the Treatise of Human Nature? | He compares the logical necessity of husband having a wife and the assertion that every man must be married; "But this does not prove that every being must be preceded by cause". In this case he acknowledges that there is a possibility that contingent things may not even need a cause. He relates this to the idea that; just because every "husband must have a wife, then every man must be married" rather the question should rely on the notion "whether every object, must owe its existence to a cause." |
| What is David Hume refuting against in his writings? | He challenges the notion whether "Nothing can come from Nothing" and if we should even consider if "every object that comes into existence" must have a cause at all. |
| Outline Hume's question of "why can't the universe be eternal"? | He maintains that it is entirely possible for us to a imagine a being without a cause, and thus if we consider God's "non-existence to be possible, why should we assume that these qualities do not belong to matter?". Thus he proposes that matter could be eternal, and that God is made up of this matter. This is in continuity with infinite regression, the Third Man argument - for what in turn is the cause of God? |
| State a challenge to the notion, "no cause can give rise to perfections or excellences that it does not itself possess." by Hume. | He introduces the idea that "anything can come from anything". In this case, "creation, annihilation, motion, reason, volition... may rise from any other object we can imagine". Thus actuality can result in many different types of potential outcomes - in the same way that we may believe that good can come out bad, and bad can come out of good. |
| Criticism against, Necessity de Re (of things - the nature of God existing). | Hume outlines that God's existence is not consistent as "any being claimed to exist, may or may not exist.". Propositions made my Aquinas are synthetic - thus there is no underlying evidence of God's existence, and so we can assume both one or the other; "No being therefore whose non-existence implies a contradiction, is demonstrable." In other words - we cannot prove his existence. |
| The Challenge to Causation in the Treatise of Human Nature. | Hume outlines that cause and effect is an idea beyond human understanding; "epistemological limits" means that the world must be treated as a "brute fact". He highlights the essence of human limitations; unsure of causation of being a reality as the "mind can never find the effect in supposed cause, even under scrutiny". |
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