Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 138 of 138
Causation as one damn thing after another
This felt determination of the mind gives us the conviction that there are necessary connections in nature. But that conviction is nothing but an illusion. The only reality is the reality of priority, contiguity, and constant conjunction. Causation on Hume’s account is literally just one damn thing after another. The only point is that there is a regularity in the way one thing follows another, and this regularity gives us the illusion that there is something more. But the necessary connection we think exists in nature is entirely an illusion in the mind. The only reality is regularity.