...In David Hume's An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding, the question of power and necessary connection is brought up with correlation to cause and effect. Hume's overall argument is while humans assume events are connected by causation, they cannot be sure as they do not consciously understand the operations which took place to create the effect. Hume begins by arguing one can never discover any power or necessary connection binding the effect of an event to its cause, meaning it is impossible for one event to always have the same effect on every occurrence (7.I.6). Consequently, no single instance could suggest the idea of necessary connection; that is to say, the cause and the effect must be connected, and may not be unrelated under any circumstances (7.I.6). Hume cites the union of the mind and body, how man believes to have an understanding of the command of will, and how we use it to control our organs (7.I.9). However, Hume presents problems with this statement: How people do not have an understanding of neurotransmissions, muscle tissue, and how they move limbs (7.I.14), and questions why we are able to control our limbs but not our internal organs (7.I.12). Hume argues while we believe to be conscious of the willpower in our minds, we do not, as this force...
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...In the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume explains the limits of human understanding against rationalist claims. As an empiricist, the philosophical belief revolves around the fact that all our ideas are not innate, but instead human knowledge stem from experiences and observation. With this understanding, we can determine what limits as human beings we are limited to. By analyzing and comprehending the first couple of sections, Hume establishes causation as central to our understanding of matters of fact. Hume starts off the Enquiry by first distinguishing the origin of ideas: impressions (passions) and thoughts (ideas). Impressions according to Hume is “... all our more lively perceptions… (Hume 8). Since he is an empiricist, knowledge is not inherited. Instead, individuals utilize their five senses to gain experiences...
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...In The Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume states that we can not have an impression of a necessary connection in the experience of causation. Before being able to discuss this point directly, Hume informs the readers about terms he later uses in his reasoning. This reading begins with Hume explaining the difference between impressions and ideas. He claims that ideas are thoughts or memories or beliefs related to impressions, whereas impressions are emotions and other mental phenomena. For example, lets say that we are holding a marker. We think that we know what the marker is, as we have become very familiar with it through experience. However, we do not have the idea of the marker itself. Rather, we posses the impression we have of the idea of the marker, which has been made through our experience. So, when we are perceiving the marker, we are actually perceiving ourselves and our impressions. Then, Hume explains relations of ideas and matters of fact. Relations of ideas typically refer to mathematical truths, which are definite facts. Therefore, when someone denies them, a contradiction...
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...Habit In Hume’s Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, he claims that it is not reason, but experience which guides and is the basis for most of our beliefs, or matters of fact. What the cause is for this, is the question he ultimately tackles in order to gain an understanding of the human nature of the connection of experience and existence. When discussing how our mind forms connections between various thought, he states that “method and regularity” act to enforce a regular chain of ideas that also serve to relate to memory and imagination (p.14). When this regular chain is broken in upon by some irregular thought, it is quickly noticed. From this, he gathers that because of the regularity that occurs in the thought process, a universal principle exists to bring together ideas in such a comprehensible fashion. These principles of association, as he calls them, are Resemblance, Contiguity, and Cause and Effect. To prove that these three principles hold to connect all possible forms of ideas, he suggests that if all situations are rendered to as general a form as possible, principles of association will apply alone or in some combination in all cases. For our purposes, cause and effect is the most relevant principle which may cast light on Hume’s statement that “Custom, then, is the great guide of human life. It is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us,” (p.29). Before entertaining the suggestion that customs are in fact an important guide to human life...
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...atheists. His arguments against religion are clear, incisive and devastating. However, some people have misconstrued his agnosticism to represent faith and claim that while Hume challenged conventional religion, he himself believed in God. In this paper I will attempt to refute some of these claims by briefly highlighting some of Hume’s most compelling arguments against religion and showing how they leave little room for belief. I will also delve into some of the context surrounding Hume’s work to show how speaking against religion was a dangerous game in those times and restricted Hume’s ability to speak freely. Some of the primary sources used for this paper include Hume’s most famous works on religion, including The Natural History of Religion and Dialogues concerning Natural Religion. Secondary and tertiary sources include scholarly critiques of Hume’s texts as well as reviews and journals interpreting his work one way or another. To start with, lets have a look at an excerpt from, The Natural History of Religion, published in 1757. In the following passage, Hume summarizes his views on religion as “sick men’s dreams”: What a noble privilege is it of human reason to attain the knowledge of the supreme Being; and, from the visible works of nature, be enabled to infer so sublime a principle as its supreme Creator? But turn the reverse of the medal. Survey most nations and most ages. Examine the religious principles, which have, in fact, prevailed in the world. You will scarcely...
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...Religious Philosophers and Speculative Atheists Interpretations of Hume's philosophy of religion are often made against the background of more general interpretations of his philosophical intentions. From this perspective, it is not unusual to view Hume's views on religion in terms of the skepticism and naturalism that features prominently in his Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), his first and most ambitious philosophical work. According to the account that is now widely accepted in the scholarly literature, Hume removed almost all the material in the Treatise that was concerned with religion because he was anxious to avoid causing any “offence” among the orthodox. In his later works, beginning with an Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), Hume began to present his views on this subject in a more substantial and direct manner. This culminates in his Natural History of Religion (1757) and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779; published posthumously) – both of which are entirely taken up with philosophical issues in religion. The linkage between these various works, on this account, is that the later writings on religion are simply an extension and application of the sceptical and naturalistic principles that Hume developed in his earlier writings. While it is certainly true that there is an intimate connection between Hume's scepticism and naturalism and his irreligious objectives and orientation, it is not evident that this relationship should be understood...
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...are two doctrines which follow this principle. The first doctrine is that most, if not all, concepts are ultimately derived from experience; the second is that most, if not all, knowledge derives from experience, in the sense that appeals to experience are necessarily involved in its justification. Neither doctrine implies the other. Hume belongs to the tradition of British empiricism that includes Francis Bacon (1561-1626), John Locke (1632-1704), and George Berkeley (1685-1753). Common to this tradition is the view that knowledge is founded upon sense-perception, which the human mind passively receives. But whereas Locke and Berkeley believe that human knowledge can go beyond sense-experience, Hume contends in the Introduction of his Treatise that our knowledge is limited to sense-experience, and so offers an empiricism that he argues is more consistent than those of his British predecessors. Hume’s Beliefs Hume mane...
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...coined as a term until the 19th century, David Hume explored these major concepts in his Enquiry, delving into the roots of humanity and questioning the truth of human freedom.1 In particular his exploration into human understanding leads him to conclude that there is no effect without a cause and liberty when opposed to necessity cannot universally exist.2 Hume’s discovery, the Causal Maxim, and is generally accepted among philosophers, though it is not enough in and of itself to prove that he fits the mold of a determinist. However, by delving further into his various arguments, I will prove that Hume’s philosophy, mainly the denial of induction and support of causation, follows the discreet specifications of Determinism. Essential to the understanding of Hume’s philosophy is his idea of the universal necessity of connection between cause and effect, though he aptly admits that this connection is unobservable and denies that humans can ever have a true understanding of cause and effect.3 To explain such a broad claim Hume addresses a situation in which causality could prove troublesome by illustrating that God, through an immense causality chain, could be the true author of crime and immorality. This approach at explaining the connection between human criminality and God is deterministic, though Hume quickly halts this explication by admitting that it is outside of the bounds of human reason to understand the will of God.4 Regardless of the incompletion of what would likely...
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...well, inspire a generation of new thought, and make him rich. It was titled A Treatise of Human Nature, and Hume had difficulty finding a publisher who would print the manuscript. As with many geniuses, Hume encountered much discouragement before his ideas were accepted. When the Treatise finally appeared in 1738, it "fell dead-born from the press" (in Hume's own words). Not only was the book a terrible seller, it failed even to achieve Hume's goal of challenging traditional thought. The religious zealots who were supposed to have been so offended by his ideas had never even heard of them. Hume eventually re-published his Treatise in the form of two Enquiries, An Enquiry Concerning the Human Understanding (1748) and An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). These helped spread his ideas and fame, although it is the republished and complete Treatise that I will focus on. The system of ideas outlined therein, with an included essay specifically on Self, will be enough to explore Hume's thoughts on the subject. Hume's theory of knowledge taught that "accurate and just reasoning...is alone able to subvert that abstruse philosophy and metaphysical jargon, which, being mixed up with popular superstition, renders it in a manner impenetrable to careless reasoners, and gives it the air of science and wisdom." In other words, the philosophies (science and wisdom) of the learned in Hume's day were abstruse speculations designed to defend superstitions that can't be justified...
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...independent study of his own devising. * In 1752 was employment as librarian of the Advocate’s Library in Edinburgh * n 1763, Hume accepted as a private secretary for Lord Hertford, the Ambassador to France, * He thought this science should be based on “experience and observation”. (Spiegel 206) * Between (1744-1745), Hume was a candidate for the Chair of Moral Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, but was rejected mostly due to the protest concerning his anti-religious writings * He wrote profoundly influential works on epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of religion, and was also published on politics, economics and history. * Hume also spent considerable time in his final years revising his works for new editions of his Essays and Treatises, Works * A Treatise of Human Nature in (1739) * Being an Attempt to introduce the experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects. During his of private study he published before when he was thirty. * "Of the Understanding" His treatment of everything from the origin...
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... Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) and David Hume (1711-1776) are two of the most influential and remarkable philosophers who have ever lived. Their perspectives on various subjects have certainly left a dent on the topics of literature, history, and philosophy. They were not afraid of turning away from common knowledge, and reinventing certain understandings about the world. Each of these philosophers were known for their new, innovative, and challenging ideas. The topic of causality (the relation between an event and a second event, where the first event is understood to be responsible for the second) was one specifically discussed by both men with great intensity, and their respective opinions shaped the minds of hundreds upon hundreds...
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...Philosophy Open access to the SEP is made possible by a world-wide funding initiative. Please Read How You Can Help Keep the Encyclopedia Free Author & Citation Info | Friends PDF Preview | InPho Search | PhilPapers Bibliography Kant and Hume on Morality First published Wed Mar 26, 2008; substantive revision Sun Aug 12, 2012 The ethics of Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) is often contrasted with that of David Hume (1711–1776). Hume's method of moral philosophy is experimental and empirical; Kant emphasizes the necessity of grounding morality in a priori principles. Hume says that reason is properly a “slave to the passions,” while Kant bases morality in his conception of a reason that is practical in itself. Hume identifies such feelings as benevolence and generosity as proper moral motivations; Kant sees the motive of duty—a motive that Hume usually views as a second best or fall back motive—as uniquely expressing an agent's commitment to morality and thus as conveying a special moral worth to actions. Although there are many points at which Kant's and Hume's ethics stand in opposition to each other, there are also important connections between the two. Kant shared some important assumptions about morality and motivation with Hume, and had, early in his career, been attracted to and influenced by the sentimentalism of Hume and other British moralists. The aim of this essay is not to compare Hume and Kant on all matters ethical. Instead, we examine...
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...A Critical Assessment of Immanuel Kant's Epistemological Alternative to Hume's Fork All the objects of human reason or enquiry may naturally be divided into two kinds, to wit, Relations of Ideas and Matters of Fact. Of the first kind are the sciences of Geometry, Algebra, and Arithmetic; and in short, every affirmation which is either intuitively or demonstratively certain. That the square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the two sides, is a proposition which expresses a relation between these figures. That three times five is equal to the half of thirty, expresses a relation between these numbers. Propositions of this kind are discoverable by the mere operation of thought, without dependence on what is anywhere existent in the universe. Though there never were a circle or triangle in nature, the truths demonstrated by Euclid would forever retain their certainty and evidence (Hume, Section II). Matters of fact, which are the second objects of human reason, are not ascertained in the same manner; nor is our evidence of their truth, however great, of a like nature with the foregoing. The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible; because it can never imply a contradiction, and is conceived by the mind with the same facility and distinctness, as if ever so conformable to reality. That the sun will not rise tomorrow is no less intelligible a proposition, and implies no more contradiction than the affirmation, that it will rise. We should in vain, therefore, attempt...
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...Enlightened Literature on Human Nature The Age of Reason, also known as the Enlightenment, was a movement in which the power of reason was employed to rethink and reform society as a whole as well as various other concepts of human existence. During that time period (about 1650-1800), numerous thinkers such as John Locke, Isaac Newton and Voltaire exercised reason to challenge the basis of their society, which was built on the premise of an Almighty God. Prior to the Enlightenment, the answer to countless questions was only known to God and God alone; however, with the deterioration of this presumption, man was left to discover everything he once believed to be incomprehensible. These noble men questioned religion, science, mathematics and eventually came to question how men should be governed, how money and economics should function and how the human race should operate. The examination of mankind led to many varying philosophies that depicted men as wild, blood-thirsty beasts of passion or sensible, upright creatures, creating juxtaposition. Many forms of writing were directly influenced by the social and philosophical measures this time period contained. Articulated in the literature was man’s questioning of every idea that was once certain, promoting the desire to examine human nature. The influx of knowledge and reason combine with the rebuttal against the idea of an omniscient deity heavily influenced Enlightenment literature. With the invention of the printing press...
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...David Hume is a Scottish philosopher, who is well recognized for his efforts on empiricism and skepticism. As a matter of fact, in An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding he focuses on epistemology, which highlights the limitations that knowledge encounters. Hume introduces the problem of induction, which is basically the philosophical issue of examining whether knowledge can be derived from inductive reasoning, and as a result whether it can come from experiences. He evidently discusses the dependability of empirical claims, and consequently of natural sciences also. In this paper, I plan at first to present Hume's problem of induction while explaining what he means by matters of fact and relations of ideas as well as emphasize the...
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