Hume skeptical doubts
It is said that wisdom is a product of experience. The human consciousness uses experience to identify situations and formulate connections between action and consequence. When observing a young child it is obvious that they lack the experience necessary to predict the outcome of their actions. They are novice to the world and have yet to undergo the experiences necessary to develop the ability to connect consequence to action. The philosopher David Hume in his book, An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, addresses these skeptical doubts. In the text Hume sets out to establish what the reasoning concerning matters of fact are founded on the relation of cause and effect, we are able to use the experiences of past events in order to make inferences that allow us to predict future events. In the section Skeptical Doubts Concerning the Operations of Understanding, Hume doubts the role that reason plays in this process. Hume thinks all ideas are derived from previous experiences. He says, "This proposition, that causes and effects are discoverable not by reason, but by experience." (338) If a person has never experienced a certain impression, they cannot ha
Hume argues that in all relations concerning matters of fact and events in the world, our thinking is based on the supposed relation of cause and effect. When we inquire how we can acquire knowledge of cause effect relationships, we run into problems. It is doubtful reason plays a role, it seems that we learn the relation of cause and effect through experience of certain objects appearing together with other objects. We cannot explain how we are able to conclude that future cause and effect relationships will resemble past cause and effect relationships. Hume offers an explanation for how we bridge the gap between past events and future events. However, in his skeptical doubts section, Hume attempts to show that reason is not the foundation of the process, his statement of 'stupid peasants, and infants' shows this point. Hume divided human reason into two branches: relations of ideas and matters of fact. A relation of ideas refers to math and thoughts that don't depend on anything that happens in the world. A matter of fact refers to events in the world; "Matters of fact are second objects of human reason." (337) The characteristic of matters of fact leads Hume to ask how it is that we can be sure of anything in the world beyond the present experience and what's in our memory. We base all our reasoning concerning matters of fact on the relation of cause and effect. By relation we are able to go beyond the present moment. ve an idea concerning it. If they never tasted anything bitter before, then they cannot conceive the idea of bitterness. Any idea mus
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Approximate Word count = 1067
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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