David Hume 2

A detailed Summary of David Hume 2

David Hume attempted to study human nature by using the laws of physical science. He also set out to find an absolute truth by using scientific reasoning. In his search for an absolute truth he discovered an immense difference among opposing opinions on nearly every subject confronted by man. Each of these opinions has an equal truth-value and there is really no way of justifying any one over the other because the truth is different for each individual. The sequence of events that each person has experienced throughout their life depicts how they will interpret things and because no two people experience the same exact events throughout their life no two people will interpret the same things from what they perceive from their senses. When it comes to things like this that are matters of fact, there will never be a case where everyone is in agreement. Their will always be disagreements over the validity of everything because the "truth" is only how different people comprehend the things they perceive through their senses. Therefore using any type of scientific method was useless in proving certainty of human nature because there would always be enough evidence to prove the opposing view as being the truth. However the t

Hume boldly states that "impressions" and "ideas" make up the total content of the mind. His definition of 'impressions" is what each person perceives from the physical world through their senses. And according to this theory "ideas" are merely copies of these impressions within the mind. He justifies this by saying that when we imagine something that we have never actually seen before our minds are actually transposing impressions that we have formerly perceived and rearranging them in a new way. For example, we can clearly imaging things that don't exist like a unicorn. This could lead us to believe our minds have created a new image which is contrary to what Hume says is possible. But actually this unicorn is made up if images that we have already seen before and our mind is just combining the image of a horn with that of a horse. Thus the human mind is incapable of creating anything completely original. It only has the ability to rearrange pieces of what has already been imprinted in us through our senses. This seams extremely constrictive upon our imagination and it left me with a feeling of confinement to our perceptions. If this is all we are capable of than all we really are is as Hume says "A Bundle of perceptions." But the more I tried to disprove this theory the more I found myself believing it. At first I tried to think of something totally original, but how is anyone to know for sure that this new thought isn't simply an obscure combination of images retrieved from former impressions originating from the senses. To determine the originality of my thought I broke it down into

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Approximate Word count = 1083
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: People