Legg, CatherineFranklin, Jim2013-02-182013-02-182012-12Legg, C. & Franklin, J. (2012). Perceiving Necessity. Paper presented at the 2012 Australasian Association of Philosophy New Zealand Conference, 2-6 December 2012, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.https://hdl.handle.net/10289/7212There are many examples of diagrams in which one seems to perceive necessity – one sees not only that something is so, but that it must be so. That conflicts with some well-known philosophical theses, inherited from Hume, according to which there cannot be any “necessary connections between distinct existences” to be perceived; and even if there were, perception would not be capable of gaining access to them. We defend the perception of necessity, and explain why Hume fails to show its impossibility.application/pdfapplication/pdfen© 2012 The AuthorsConference Contribution