In her Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect, published in 1824, Lady Mary Shepherd aimed to criticise Hume’s assumption that causal relations are based on custom and belief, stressing instead that causal thinking is matter of reasoning. Reacting to Hume’s sceptical conclusions about the uniformity of nature, Shepherd endeavoured to prove that natural phenomena are constant and causality expresses necessary connections, also using mathematical reasoning and examples freshly furnished by chemistry. Although Shepherd’s reading of Hume seems sometimes bizarre and idiosyncratic, her Essay is a significant episode in the history of the interpretations of Humean texts in the nineteenth century and affords new material for illustrating the emergence of the Positivistic definition of causality.
Restoring Necessary Connections: Lady Mary Shepherd on Hume and the Early Nineteenth-Century Debate on Causality
PAOLETTI, Cristina
2011
Abstract
In her Essay upon the Relation of Cause and Effect, published in 1824, Lady Mary Shepherd aimed to criticise Hume’s assumption that causal relations are based on custom and belief, stressing instead that causal thinking is matter of reasoning. Reacting to Hume’s sceptical conclusions about the uniformity of nature, Shepherd endeavoured to prove that natural phenomena are constant and causality expresses necessary connections, also using mathematical reasoning and examples freshly furnished by chemistry. Although Shepherd’s reading of Hume seems sometimes bizarre and idiosyncratic, her Essay is a significant episode in the history of the interpretations of Humean texts in the nineteenth century and affords new material for illustrating the emergence of the Positivistic definition of causality.I documenti in SFERA sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
