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Empiricism, skepticism, the problem of induction
Hume argued that all knowledge comes from sense impressions and the ideas copied from them, and that we never actually perceive a necessary connection between cause and effect — we only observe one event repeatedly following another and form a mental habit of expecting it. This "problem of induction" meant even science's most basic assumption, that the future will resemble the past, cannot be rationally proven, only psychologically assumed.
Scottish philosopher and historian, a central figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, whose religious skepticism cost him university posts during his lifetime.