VERITAS FILIA TEMPORIS: HUME ON TIME AND CAUSATION

Abstract

hedgehog concern of a broad historical thesis on time, causation, explanation and indeed the universe as a whole. Given the nature of the beast, however, it will be enough, in the first part of the paper, to sketch the thesis with respect to Hume's primary source for it. The other concern is to show how Hume's view of time places him within the scope of the thesis.1 The attempt to do so involves, in the second part of the paper, a rather vulpine analysis of three generally neglected arguments Hume offers with respect to time, and, in the paper's final part, a discussion of the previous use and significance of these arguments. I