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How did David Hume explain the relationship between choices and actions?

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Free will and moral responsibility Immanuel Kant, print published in London, 1812.

David Hume, a prominent compatibilist, argued that the perceived conflict between determinism and free will arises from a misunderstanding of causation. He rejected the notion of a "necessary connection" in nature, proposing instead that causation is a regularity observed in human experience where one event is "constantly conjoined" with another.12

Regarding the relationship between choices and actions, Hume maintained that human actions are caused by human choices in the same way other events are linked by constant conjunction. He defined liberty as the power to act or refrain from acting according to the determinations of one's will. For Hume, this regularity is sufficient to establish free will and moral responsibility; if an individual is able to perform the actions they choose, they are considered free.1

Hume’s perspective emphasizes that freedom is simply the ability to act in accordance with one's own will, rather than requiring an exemption from the causal order of the universe.1