Nicholas of Autrecourt has been called “the medieval Hume” for his criticisms of the received views on sense knowledge and causality. The parallel with Hume is indeed very close. His opinions appear first in his Letters to Bernard of Arezzo, written in the 1330s. Bernard is an orthodox Ockhamist Aristotelian and so believes that, for example, although there could be the appearance of a star without there being a star, if God created a vision, that does not happen in the normal course of nature. He believes also that philosophy consists of demonstrated certainties. Nicholas argues, in his First
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