PHI 3170 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Causal Inference, John Locke, Experience 7
13 Dec 2013
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Anti-rationalist: no beliefs justified if not by experience, so no justified a priori beliefs. Classic rationalist example of justified a priori belief: general maxim in philosophy:" whatever begins to exist must have a cause of existence. We do not directly observe causation; we do not have a direct impression of external necessary connection. Thus, a causal sequence in the mind is produced by and runs parallel to a causal sequence external to the mind: contrasting views: rationalism and direct observation theory. Rationalists hold that the connection between cause and effect is knowable a priori. Confronted by the first event, one cannot help but believe that the second event will follow. Ridicules the idea of innate knowledge we need experience: the nexus and the straight-jacket (blackburn) Necessity exists in the mind, not in objects. Everything that occurs must have been produced (caused) by something causally adequate to produce it.
