Sorry, it was Einstein’s theory of special relativity that resolved Hume’s insight, not atomic theory. Basically, Hume argued that if you see a ball X hit a ball Y, and subsequently ball Y begins rolling at the same speed of ball X, all one has really experienced is the perception of ball X moving next to ball Y and the subsequent spontaneous acceleration of ball Y. Infinity out of infinity times you may experience the exact same perception whenever ball X bumps into ball Y, but in Hume’s time there was no empirical way to prove that the collision of ball X into ball Y caused the effect of the latter’s acceleration. With this, you can. I’m afraid I can’t answer in any more depth than that, as I myself don’t understand the mathematics behind it. Anyone else?
Enlightening! Thank you for the paper.
Sorry, it was Einstein’s theory of special relativity that resolved Hume’s insight, not atomic theory. Basically, Hume argued that if you see a ball X hit a ball Y, and subsequently ball Y begins rolling at the same speed of ball X, all one has really experienced is the perception of ball X moving next to ball Y and the subsequent spontaneous acceleration of ball Y. Infinity out of infinity times you may experience the exact same perception whenever ball X bumps into ball Y, but in Hume’s time there was no empirical way to prove that the collision of ball X into ball Y caused the effect of the latter’s acceleration. With this, you can. I’m afraid I can’t answer in any more depth than that, as I myself don’t understand the mathematics behind it. Anyone else?