David Hume. Enquiry concerning human understanding (№ 402929)

There is no doubt that not only the most ignorant and stupid peasants, but also children and even animals improve through experience and study the qualities of objects of nature, observing the actions that follow from them. If a child has experienced a sensation of pain, touching the flame of a candle, then he will try not to bring his hands close to any candle and expect a similar action from a reason similar to the above in sensory qualities and appearance. Therefore, if you claim that the child's mind arrives at this conclusion through some process of reasoning or formal reasoning, then I have every right to demand that you indicate this reasoning, and you have no reason to refuse to fulfill such a just requirement. You have no right to say that this argumentation is vague and, perhaps, defies your investigation, as long as you admit that it is accessible to the understanding of the child. Therefore, if you have even a moment's hesitation, or if you, on reflection, offer some complex or deep argumentation, then you will in some way reject this solution of the issue and confess that it is not reasoning that prompts us to assume a similarity between the past and the future and expect similar actions. from reasons that are similar in appearance. This is the point I have tried to prove in this chapter; and if I am right, I still do not pretend that I have made some great discovery; if the truth is not on my side, I must admit that I am a very poor student, since even now I am not in a position to discover the argument which, apparently, was well known to me when I was still lying in the cradle.