Essay hume induction

The problem of meeting this challenge, while evading Hume’s argument against the possibility of doing so, has become known as “the problem of induction”. Hume’s argument is one of the most famous in philosophy.

The problem of induction is to find a way to avoid this conclusion, despite Hume’s argument. After presenting the problem, Hume does present his own “solution” to the doubts he has raised (E. 5, T. 1.3.7–16). This consists of an explanation of what the inductive inferences are driven by, if not reason.

Hume’s argument concerns specific inductive inferences such as: All observed instances of A have been B. The next instance of A will be B. Let us call this “inference I ”. Inferences which fall under this type of schema are now often referred to as cases of “simple enumerative induction”.

In 1748, Hume gave a shorter version of the argument in Section iv of An enquiry concerning human understanding. Throughout this article we will give references to the Treatise as “T”, and the Enquiry as “E”. Hume asks on what grounds we come to our beliefs about the unobserved on the basis of inductive inferences.