Philosophy 210/310
Early Modern Philosophy 
Andrew Mills' 
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Study Questions for Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Section VIII: Of Liberty and Necessity

  1. What is the doctrine of necessity?
  2. Where does Hume think we derive our idea of necessity from?  What two ‘circumstances' have to be the case for us to say of
  3. some situation that one event causes (or determines, or necessitates) another?
  4. Does the doctrine of necessity apply to the voluntary actions of people? How so?  That is, explain how the two ‘circumstances'
  5. fit the case of human action.
  6. Hume contrasts the attitude of the ‘vulgar' with that of the philosophers concerning the ‘contrariety' of events.  What is this issue?  How do the philosophers differ from the vulgar on this topic?  Which of these views preserves the doctrine of necessity?
  7. Hume examines the inferences that we draw concerning human action.  What sort of inferences is he talking about?  Inferences from what to what?  Why is it important for him to address this issue?
  8. What is the point of the discussion of the prisoner?  (Hint: It's the same as the point of the cases of the houseguest and the man who leaves his gold in the train station.)
  9. The paragraph on p. 362 which begins "I have frequently considered..." is an important one.  What is Hume up to there?  What issue is he dealing with?  What is his point?  (The same topic is continued in the following paragraph.)
  10. Why is it that an act of mine still falls under the doctrine of necessity even though it seems to me that my act is free?
  11. What is the doctrine of liberty?  Why is it consistent with the doctrine of necessity?
  12. Liberty is opposed to constraint; it is not opposed to necessity.  What does this mean?
  13. According to Hume, the doctrine of necessity does not threaten morality or our ability to praise and blame, but rather morality--including our practices of praising and blaming--presuppose the truth of the doctrine of necessity.  Explain how this is so.
  14. How is it that liberty is essential to morality?

    15. Hume considers a powerful objection in the paragraph which spans pp. 365-66. What is his response to this objection?  Is it a good one?