Hume 2018/5: Probability and the Idea of Necessity

A series of 8 lectures on David Hume’s philosophy, delivered to Oxford University undergraduates in Michaelmas term 2018. The lectures focus mainly on Book 1 of his 1739 Treatise of Human Nature, with reference to other works where appropriate. Main themes of the lectures are: (1) Hume’s background and chief aims; (2) Ideas, impressions, and abstraction; (3) Humean faculties and relations; (4) Induction and belief; (5) Probability and causal necessity; (6) Causal interpretation, to...