Causation as Custom

Hume's most dizzying result: the cement of the universe turns out to be a habit in us. When billiard ball A strikes ball B and B moves, what we perceive is sequence – A, then B – not any "causal" connection between them. Causation, on his analysis, is a habit of expectation produced in us by repeated conjunction. Kant said this was the argument that woke him from his dogmatic slumber.