Humian

We have to deal, then, only with greater or lesser possibilities and agree with the Humian idea that under similar conditions frequency of occurrence implies repetition in the next instance.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

Properly to bound our discussion of Humian skepticism, a few words have to be said concerning the empirical method of the sciences.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

There is still another objection to discuss, i.e. the mathematical exception to Humian skepticism.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

We work continuously with these two Humian propositions, and we always make our assertion, first, that some things are related as cause and effect, and we join the present case to that because we consider it similar.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

This would be a mistaken abstraction of the principle of equal distribution from the general Humian law, for the Humian law applied to this case indicates: "For a long series of years we have observed that in this region there occur annually so and so many suicides; we conclude therefore that in this year also there will occur a similar number of suicides."

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

Such an inference is not contradictory to the Humian proposition.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

The explanation is rather as follows: In the first case there is involved the norm of equal possibilities, and if we apply the Humian principle of increase of probability through repetition, we find it effective in explaining the example.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

This constitutes the well known kernel of Humian skepticism.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911

From this slumber, as it is called by himself, he was suddenly aroused by the Humian doctrine of cause and effect.

The Uncollected Writings of Thomas de Quincey—Vol. 1 With a Preface and Annotations by James Hogg Thomas De Quincey 1822

According to Masaryk,2 the fundamental doctrine of Humian skepticism is as follows: "If I have had one and the same experience ever so often, i. e., if I have seen the sun go up 100 times, I expect to see it go up the 101st time the next day, but I have no guarantee, no certainty, no evidence for this belief.

Criminal Psychology: a manual for judges, practitioners, and students 1911