Defining “The Objection of David Hume”

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 2 shows that to understand Kant’s reference to “the objection of David Hume which first, many years ago, interrupted my dogmatic slumber” we must read it against the background of his earlier references to Hume’s “question” and to Hume’s “attack” on metaphysics. It breaks down Hume’s “attack” on metaphysics into three steps: a demonstration that rules out the possibility of knowing causal connection through pure concepts, and thus of knowing the principle of sufficient reason; a conclusion that the concept of cause is a bastard of the imagination; and a conclusion that there is no metaphysics. It argues that Kant’s source for this account is the Enquiry, not the Treatise, and points to the sections of the Enquiry that correspond to each step.