Michael Watkins
Auburn University and Dalhousie University
Many endorse Hume’s argument that causal events are not directly perceivable; few state it. I canvass the different versions of Hume’s argument and show that they fall short. According to the most interesting version, causation is not directly perceivable because the perception of it is cognitively complex: we recognize that two events are related causally not simply because of what is directly presented to us, but always partly because of past experience – because of the memories and other beliefs that we have. I argue, against Hume, that perceptual knowledge might be epistemically simple while cognitively complex.