Knowledge and Probability on Superphysics

What is Knowledge?

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Knowledge is Based on the Resemblance, Contrariety, Quality, and Quantity of Ideas to Each Other

There are 7 kinds of philosophical relation:

Resemblance
Identity
Relations of time and place
Proportion in quantity or number
Degrees in any quality
Contrariety
Causation

These relations are divided into 2 classes:

Probability and the Idea of Cause and Effect

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Knowledge is Based on Four Relations, Reason and Understanding is Based on One Relation: Causation

Those 4 relations of resemblance, contrariety, quality, and quantity are the foundation of science.

The other 3 relations do not depend on the idea.

Motion Transfer in Bodies

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We impulsively think of motion in Body 1 as the cause of motion in Body 2.

When we consider these objects with utmost attention, we find only that:

Body 1 approaches Body 2, and
The motion of Body 2 comes from Body 1, but without any sensible interval.

It is in vain to rack ourselves thinking about this.

Existence Does Not Always Need a Cause

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Philosophy has a general maxim: whatever exists must have a cause of existence.

This is founded on intuition, which is a kind of conviction.

Causes Need to be Perceived

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The Inference to a Cause Eventually Requires Evidence of that Cause

In its reasonings on [real] causes or effects, the mind carries its view beyond the objects it perceives or remembers.

Ideas from Memory are Stronger than Ideas from Imagination

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We use mixed and heterogeneous materials when we think of causes.

These materials are essentially different from each other no matter how connected they are.

All our arguments on causes and effects consist of:

The Inference from the Impression to the Idea

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The Constant Conjunction Between Cause and Effect Comes from Experience

We infer the existence of one object from the existence of another object only through experience.

What is Probability?

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Probability only discovers the relations of objects, not the relations of ideas.

It must be founded on our perceptions and ideas.

If there were no perceptions in our probable reasonings, the conclusion would be chimerical.
If there were no mixture of ideas, the mind’s action in observing the relation would be sensation, not reasoning.

In all probable reasonings, there must therefore be some perception or thing present to the mind, either seen or remembered.

Cause and Effect is based on Perceptions

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Reason Cannot Explain the Connection of Cause and Effect Because that Connection is Based on Impressions

Our reason fails to discover the ultimate connection of causes and effects.

Even after experience has informed us of their constant conjunction, we cannot extend that experience beyond those observed instances.

The Nature of Idea or Belief

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A Belief is a Strong Idea that Gives Ideas More Force

The idea of an object is an essential part of the belief of it, but not the whole.

We conceive many things which we do not believe.

Maxim on the Transferrence of Force from Impressions

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Beliefs are Strengthened by Impressions

Belief consists in a lively idea related to a present impression.

What bestows the vivacity on the idea?

I establish another general maxim: “when any impression becomes present to us, it transports the mind to related ideas and also communicates its force and vivacity.”

Causes of Belief

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Causation has the same influence as the two other relations of resemblance and contiguity.

Superstitious people are fond of the relics of saints and holy men because they seek images to:

Reality is a system made up of current perceptions and ideas and those from memory

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My principles apply to beliefs.

Besides cause and effect, resemblance and contiguity convey the mind from one idea to another.

The Relation of Cause and Effect

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Cause and effect has all the opposite advantages.

The objects it presents are fixed and unalterable.

The thought is always determined to pass from the impression to the idea, and from that particular impression to that particular idea, without any choice or hesitation.

Religion

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Men are concerned what happens after death.

The lack of resemblance in this case so entirely destroys belief.

Very few people truly believe in the soul’s immortality in the same way as travelers and historians believe their own testimonies.

The Influence of Belief

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Impressions and Ideas are Balanced by Nature

Philosophy derides education as a fallacious assent to any opinion.

Nevertheless, education prevails in the world.

Education is the cause why all systems are apt to be initially rejected as new and unusual.

Poets Adds Vivacity to Ideas

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Poets are liars by profession.

They always try to give an air of truth to their fictions.

Where truth is totally neglected, their performances, however ingenious, will never be able to afford much pleasure.

The Probability of Chances

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Chance is the Negation of Cause

Many arguments from causation exceed probability.

Chance is merely the negation of a cause

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This superiority of cause over chance can be easily seen in a die that has four sides with one dot and two sides with two dots.

The mind here is:

The Probability of Causes

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There are 3 Origins of Chances: Experience, Contrariety, Analogy

I explain the probability of chances to explain the probability of causes.

All the probabilities of causes are derived from the association of ideas to a present impression.

Contrary Events

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A contrariety of past events might make us hesitate by producing an imperfect transition from the present impression to the related idea.

When the conjunction of 2 objects is frequent but not constant, the mind passes from one object to the other.

Contrary Events

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I propose 3 subtle considerations to justify probability arising fron contrariety.

Just reasoning should retain its force, however subtle, in the same way as matter preserves its solidity:

in the air, fire, and animal spirits, and
in the grosser and more sensible forms.

No probability is so great as not to allow of a contrary possibility.

Analogy as a Kind of Probability and Origin of Chance

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3. Analogy as a Kind of Probability and Origin of Chance

This differs from the two in some material circumstances.

Contrary Events

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All our reasonings on the probability of causes are founded on the transferring of past to future.

The transferring of any past experiment to the future is enough to give us a view of the object whether:

Four Kinds of Unphilosophical Probability

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There are 4 kinds of unphilosophical probability derived from the same principles.

4: Unphilosophical Probability From Hasty General Rules

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Another unphilosophical kind of probability is that derived from hasty general rules, which:

we rashly form to ourselves, and
are the source of prejudice.

An example is: “An Irishman cannot have wit and a Frenchman cannot have solidity.”

The Nature of General Rules

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According to my system, all reasonings are nothing but the effects of custom.

Custom only influences by:

enlivening the imagination, and
giving us a strong conception of anything

Our judgment and imagination can never be contrary.

Indirect Speech

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Indirect speech is a mark of greater respect than direct speech.

Sometimes direct insults that we throw are less displeasing than indirect satire because it revenges us for the injury done to us.

Cause and Effect Need to be Tied to Each Other

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The Efficacy of Causes Creates a Needed and Consequential Connection from Its Effects

Why do cause and effect need to be connected to each other? (Section 2)

Deity as the Cause

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Some maintain that bodies operate by their substantial form.

Others, by their accidents or qualities.
Several, by their matter and form.
Some, by their form and accidents.
Others, by certain virtues and faculties distinct from all this.

All these feelings again:

Matter and Will as the Cause

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The Matter as the Cause

Other philosophers maintain the efficacy of second causes.

They attribute a derivative, real power and energy to matter.

They confess that this energy does not lie in any of the known qualities of matter.

What is the Nature of Creative Power?

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Power cannot subsist alone.

It is always regarded as an attribute of some being or existence.

We must be able to:

place this power in some particular being, and
conceive that being as endowed with a real force and energy which causes such effects.

We must distinctly and particularly:

Repetition Does Not Create Nor Discover Any Innate Power

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[The inability of repetition to create an original idea is proven by:]

The repetition of like objects in like relations of succession and contiguity discovers nothing new in any one of them, since we cannot:

draw any inference from it, nor
make it a subject of our demonstrative or probable reasonings (Section 6).

If we could draw an inference, it would be of no consequence in the present case, since no kind of reasoning can create a new idea such as this idea of power.

The Power in Causes and Effects is Created by the Mind

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This propensity of the mind to imbue its impressions on objects is why we think that necessity and power lies in the objects we consider, and not in our mind that considers them.

The Definition of Cause

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A Cause is Contiguous and Precedent to or United with its Effect and is Discovered by Experience

Cause and effect is either:

Rules in Judging Causes and Effects

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It is Easy to Give Rules, But Hard to Implement Them

Experience is needed to know whether an object is the cause of another object.

Anything can produce anything.

Creation, annihilation, motion, reason, and volition may arise from one another, or from any other object that we can imagine.

The Reason of Animals

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Animals Have Reason Just as Humans Have Reason

The most obvious truth is that beasts have thought and reason just like humans.