David Hume´s Philosophy

Hume’s Epistemology

David Hume was a Scottish philosopher known for his ideas of skepticism and empiricism. Hume strived to better develop John Locke’s idea of empiricism by using a scientific study of our own human nature. We cannot lean on common sense to exemplify human conduct without offering any clarification to the subject. In other words, Hume says that since human beings do, as a matter of fact, live and function in this world, observation of how humans do so is imminent. The primary goal of philosophy is simply to explain and justify the reasoning of why we believe what we do.

Hume is the creator of two different perceptions that reside in the human mind, ideas and impressions. Impressions are more simply put as the root of all ideas, according to Hume. “… all our more lively perceptions, when we hear, or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will.”(Cahn) We create our own ideas off of impressions that Hume says are, “…less forcible and lively…” (Cahn) Ideas must come after an impression because “what never was seen or heard of may yet be conceived.” (Cahn) So, Hume’s claim is that not all of our ideas are like impressions, but, that every idea depends on an impression. We can have an idea if and only if we first had the impression that the idea is perceived from. Not all ideas and impressions come to our minds directly from the senses, but are composed of much smaller particles in the mind that are like copies of what has come through sensory experience.

Hume divides all of the components of human reason into two different categories, relations of ideas and matters of fact. The division of these two categories is defined as “Hume’s Fork,” using the analogy “fork in the road.”

“All the objects of hu...

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...tion of what he really thinks. Just as we believe the sun will come up, and set down every single day we are apart of this earth, our belief of that theory cannot be certain; faith in the same outcomes has to be present in ones soul. Almost every aspect of Hume's ideas is composed of complex thoughts that are formed from simple ideas and impressions seen every single day “Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.” (Hume)

WORKS CITED

Morris, William Edward. "David Hume." Stanford University. Stanford University, 26 Feb. 2001. Web. 30 Apr. 2014. .

Hume, David. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Vol. XXXVII, Part 3. The Harvard Classics. New York: P.F. Collier & Son, 1909–14; Bartleby.com, 2001.