section 5; sceptical solutions of these doubts

"Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similiar train of events with those which have appeared in the past. Without the influence of custom, we should be entirely ignorant of every matter of fact, beyond what is immediately present to the memory and senses."



In section 4, Hume discusses how matter of fact is based on past experiences, but what happens when you cannot reason with your past experience? What if your past experiences do not have the answers for the present or the future? How about those people who don't have aknowledgment of their past experiences? What happens then? Hume says that those who do not have prior experience are not going to understand the process of cause and effect. In this section Hume states that our reasoning of experiences is derived from custom not understanding.

I agree with Hume. I believe that we cannot base our reasonings through prior experience. We have to observe the situation more than one time to come to the understanding of cause and effect. You cannot base matter of fact on prior experience, it has to derive from custom, its the only way one can infer matter of fact. The form of custom allows us to reason, to understand cause and effect, to see things vividly, this way the thoughts would be "always present to the senses and memory".