For example: a plant will grow because I have planted a seed in the earth. This machine will not function because somebody has tampered with it.
But how do we know the plant will grow? How do we know the machine will dysfunction? We do not; we expect these events to happen because of past experience proving our presumptions correct.
Hume argues that causation is only based on belief originating from human intuition or induction, having no logical reasoning or certainty backing the theory.
Another inductive weakness Hume talks about is the fact that it is not at all possible to prove human moral beliefs. You cannot see anice? person, or indeed, prove they are so; they are only described in such a way because they have treated you well in the past and you presume this account to be true of the said person. The best example of a person acting in such a way is a salesman selling his product. How does this individual go about doing his job? He or she actsnice? to his or her potential customers, convincing them they cannot live without the particular product and therefore making them feel obliged to make their purchase and fall into the trap.
There is one type of inductive reasoning that is flawlessly correct and never wrong; this is known as Aristotle'ssyllogism?. .
For example: All men are mortal. This statement is correct.
Socrates is a man; therefore he must also be mortal.
If the premise of the statement is correct, it follows that the conclusion be as well.
Hume's arguments against induction may be theoretically acceptable, but human existence without them would be deigned impossible. What would the world be like if the power of induction was non-existent? Society would be in chaos. No-one would expect the sun to rise in the morning, or the alarm clock to wake them at unearthly hours. Nobody would expect yesterday's employment to be present today. In the worst case, how would we know that the food we are about to eat is at all nourishing?.