Why did David Hume believe that knowledge cannot go beyond experience?

David Hume, a central figure in Scottish philosophy, argued that knowledge cannot extend beyond experience because he believed all human knowledge originates in sense experience.12

Hume categorized all perceptions into two types: impressions (vivid sensations or internal consciousness) and ideas (faint images derived from those impressions). He maintained that the mind does not create ideas independently; rather, it derives them by compounding, transposing, or augmenting data gathered from impressions. Consequently, any word or concept that does not correspond to an impression lacks meaningful content.34

Furthermore, Hume challenged the rational basis for understanding the world. He argued that we cannot observe necessary connections between events; instead, we perceive only their constant conjunction. Our belief in causality and the uniformity of nature arises not from reason, but from mental habit and custom. Because reason cannot demonstrate the truth of matters of fact, and because our associations are merely products of psychological habit, Hume concluded that human knowledge is strictly limited to the boundaries of our own experience.145