Hume demonstrated that causal relations are not logically necessary connections but habit-formed expectations, making cross-domain inference from percepts to material causes epistemically unjustified.
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Material causes(as one type of explanation for how things exist)
The physical stuff or material that something is made of—like how a statue is made of marble or bronze.
causal relations(Davidson's distinction between causal and logical relations)
Relations that obtain between events themselves, independent of how those events are described
epistemology(Contrasted with purely descriptive scientific inquiry)
A normative enterprise that tells us how we ought to reason from evidence and how we ought to justify our beliefs, as distinct from merely describing how we do reason or justify beliefs
logically necessary(Distinguished from metaphysical necessity in Swinburne's argument)
That which could not fail to exist or be true; its non-existence or falsehood would be a logical contradiction
percepts(Russell's neutral monism)
Entities composed of sensations and images that inherit the neutral status of their constituents