Why did Hume think causal reasoning cannot establish knowledge of a supersensible reality?
David Hume argued that causal reasoning cannot establish knowledge of a supersensible reality because he redefined the nature of causality itself.12
Hume contended that causal relations are not internal, intelligible ties between cause and effect, but are instead matters of factual connection reduced to regular precedence and succession observed in time. Because our idea of a "necessary connection" between events is derived solely from the psychological habit of associating frequently occurring experiences, it lacks an objective basis in sense perception.134
Consequently, causal relations can only hold between items of experience. Hume concluded that if the temporal element is removed from causality, nothing remains; if it is kept, one cannot logically infer the existence of anything beyond the sensible world. Since all inferences from experience are products of custom rather than rational demonstration, they cannot justify claims about a reality that lies outside the reach of our immediate sense experience. Thus, any attempt to use causal reasoning to bridge the gap between the sensible and the supersensible is, in his view, philosophically invalid.135