B2 Non-refereed book chapter or chapter in a compilation book
Hume, Causality and the Leibnizian Principle of Sufficient Reason
Authors: Helenius, Visa
Editors: Matias Slavov, Jan Forsman
Edition: 1
Publication year: 2025
Book title : Contemporary Perspectives and Historical Dimensions: Festschrift in Honor of Jani Hakkarainen
First page : 199
Last page: 211
ISBN: 978-952-03-3938-8
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-03-3938-8
In this paper, my aim is to clarify the connection between Hume’s theory of causality and the PSR (the principle of sufficient reason) by analysing Leibniz’s view of the PSR and Hume’s arguments. I focus on Hume’s two arguments about causation from A Treatise of Human Nature and an argument and an endnote from An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. I begin with the PSR, then proceed to a difference between cause and reason, and arrive at Hume’s arguments and scholarly discussion.
