"That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise"
About this Quote
Hume lands this line like a quiet detonator under everyday confidence. He isn’t flirting with doomsday; he’s stripping the obvious of its false aura of necessity. The proposition that the sun will not rise tomorrow sounds absurd only because habit has trained us to treat repetition as proof. Logically, though, there’s no contradiction in imagining dawn failing to arrive. “The sun rises” is not a mathematical truth, true by definition; it’s an expectation stitched together from memory.
The intent is surgical: to separate what we can know by pure reasoning from what we merely expect based on experience. Hume is targeting induction, the mental move we make when we generalize from past to future. We watch countless sunrises, then smuggle in an extra, unearned premise: nature will continue to behave as it has. Hume’s point is that this premise can’t be justified without circularity. If you argue “it will keep happening because it always has,” you’re using induction to defend induction.
The subtext is epistemic humility with a sharp edge. Enlightenment optimism loved the idea that reason could secure the world; Hume answers that reason alone can’t even guarantee tomorrow’s sunrise. What keeps society functioning isn’t airtight proof but psychological momentum: custom, expectation, the mind’s craving for continuity.
Context matters: in an era intoxicated by Newtonian regularity, Hume reminds readers that “laws of nature” are descriptions of observed patterns, not rational guarantees. The line still stings because it exposes how much of modern certainty is just well-behaved habit dressed up as knowledge.
The intent is surgical: to separate what we can know by pure reasoning from what we merely expect based on experience. Hume is targeting induction, the mental move we make when we generalize from past to future. We watch countless sunrises, then smuggle in an extra, unearned premise: nature will continue to behave as it has. Hume’s point is that this premise can’t be justified without circularity. If you argue “it will keep happening because it always has,” you’re using induction to defend induction.
The subtext is epistemic humility with a sharp edge. Enlightenment optimism loved the idea that reason could secure the world; Hume answers that reason alone can’t even guarantee tomorrow’s sunrise. What keeps society functioning isn’t airtight proof but psychological momentum: custom, expectation, the mind’s craving for continuity.
Context matters: in an era intoxicated by Newtonian regularity, Hume reminds readers that “laws of nature” are descriptions of observed patterns, not rational guarantees. The line still stings because it exposes how much of modern certainty is just well-behaved habit dressed up as knowledge.
Quote Details
| Topic | Reason & Logic |
|---|---|
| Source | David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), Section IV “Sceptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of the Understanding” — contains the line, “That the sun will not rise to-morrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction, than the affirmation, that it will rise.” |
More Quotes by David
Add to List
