Final answer:
Hume questioned the certainty of beliefs such as the sun rising or a ball moving when kicked because, though based on past experience, such events are not rationally certain. He argued our understanding of causality and natural laws comes from habit, not rational proof, and that these are probable, not guaranteed.
Step-by-step explanation:
David Hume, a Scottish philosopher, challenged the certainty of beliefs such as the sun rising tomorrow or a ball moving when kicked, not due to a lack of empirical evidence but due to the philosophical understanding that the past does not necessarily determine the future. He argued that our belief in causality and the laws of nature stem from habit and past experience rather than from rational certainty. While the sun has reliably risen every day in recorded history, and physics provides a stable explanation for this, Hume posited that these are still only probable events, not certainties, as we cannot rationally rule out unlikely but possible disruptions to these patterns.
Hume maintained that beliefs and feelings are not derivable from facts, a point that extends to the realm of causality and the understanding of nature. We operate under the assumption of continuity in natural laws, but such assumptions are not infallible truths. This stance remains an important critique of rationalism and empiricism, urging us to recognize the limits of human understanding and the role of probability in our beliefs about the world.