David Hume Research Paper

5. Empiricism is “the knowledge that demands that all knowledge, except for certain logical truths and principles of mathematics, comes from experience” (604). Hume’s fork is significant for empiricism because David Hume explains that all truth is proven through experiences which is also the definition of empiricism. Hume’s fork is “the division of all knowledge into reasoning about matters of fact” (226). In an example argument, Hume states that there is no reasoning behind the argument or no experience to justify the truth. Hume is the only philosopher who realized that there are so many “fundamental beliefs” that do not justify the truth through experiences (217). Hume says that, “he insists that all knowledge begins with basic units of sensory experience”

Berkeley’s thesis is known as subjective idealism. Subjective idealism is “the doctrine that there are no material substances, no physical objects, only minds and ideas in mind” (208). Berkeley’s position of idea is based of off Locke’ thesis. One reason is because it states that we can know the qualities of a substance but still not know what the substance is. Another reason is agree that all knowledge of the world is known through experiences. Berkeley also states that Locke was wrong about the distinction between primary and secondary qualities. He criticizes Locke because Locke argues that our experiences are caused by physical objects, but Berkeley says this cannot be true because “we have no experience of either the objects themselves” (209). Berkeley believes that the primary qualities are to be pictures of things that exist without our minds. Berkeley doesn’t understand Locke’s belief of matter. Berkeley thinks that Locke’s view of matter is wrong because it is “ an extension, figure and motion are the only ideas existing in the mind, and ... an idea can be like nothing but another idea…hence it is plain, that the very notion of what is called matter ... involves a contradiction in it”