From Corruption to Custom: Hume on Malebranche and Préjugé

Research ← Paper

With Wesley Hill. Accepted for presentation at Prejudice in Hume and His Contemporaries, University College Dublin, 23–24 June 2026.

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Abstract

Malebranche’s account of préjugé—prejudice or pre-judgment—treats it as a corruption of the natural cognitive order, rooted in the soul’s union with the body and its consequent dependence on the senses. This paper examines how Hume engages with and transforms this account. Where Malebranche treats custom as a mechanism of corruption, we argue that Hume rehabilitates it as a foundational epistemic resource, inverting the normative structure of Malebranche’s picture while retaining much of its phenomenological detail.

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Materials

University College Dublin, June 2026

Conference materials will be posted here following the conference.