Hume’s scepticism does not stop there. He regards human belief in causation as just a special case of a more general psychological trait: inductive reasoning. Inductive reasoning is the process that leads us to make generalisations from observing a number of similar cases. For example, having observed many white swans but no black swans, one might seemingly be justified in the conclusion that ‘All swans are white’. Equally, being aware that men often die, we conclude ‘All men are mortal’.
