ipl-logo

David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

1404 Words6 Pages

In “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding” David Hume talks about two kind of human reasoning, relations of ideas and Matters of fact. According to Hume, all the objects of human reason or inquiry naturally divided into two categories. Relations of ideas are thing that we can know by just thinking or knowing the meaning of the words, on the other hand, matters of fact are the opposite. He also point out the problem of induction, we are justified in using our experience of the past as evidence of what will happen in the future which is known as causation. If human reason are not relations of ideas or matters of fact, he says they are nonsense. For example science will be nonsense because they are not relations of ideas nor matters of fact. The first object of human reason is relations of ideas. These are things humans know through intuitively or demonstration. They are statements that are true simply in virtue of the concepts contained in them and not in virtue of the way the world is. They are true by definition and just have to know the meaning of the word to know if it true or false. Relations of ideas are also called …show more content…

Therefore they are important, meaningful, or significant to human being. They are not true by definition. Examples of matters of facts are “the sun will rise tomorrow”, and “all bachelors have messy apartments.” In the case of bachelors having messy apartments, all we have to do is find a bachelor with a non-messy apartment then the statement will be proven wrong. Hume says, “The contrary of every matter of fact is still possible.” It means that matter of fact are something that is not false but there is a possibility that it can be also false like the bachelors non-messy apartment. According to Hume matter of facts are unjustified. We can have a priori knowledge only if it is a relations of ideas and matters of fact can be known only as a

Show More
Related
513 Words | 3 Pages

2. A statement that is self-contradictory is seldom true. Self-contradictory arre not true, can 't be a statment can 't prove a self-contradictoy is true. 3. We can tell if a claim is true or false by looking at what it means.

Read More
230 Words | 1 Pages

Hume’s argument against induction is that “only meaningful propositions are relations of idea and matter of fact”. This meaning that the claim must be priori or a posteriori. However, Hume contradicts himself because his own argument does not meet his own criteria of a meaningful proposition. This is because his statement is not a relation of ideas or a matter of fact. The grue-problem is almost like predicting what will happen in the future based on what happened in the past.

Read More
2021 Words | 9 Pages

When it comes to Hume’s theories, specifically the principles of ideas, we can evaluate them based on their identities. Out of the three associative principles, “causation is the strongest and the only one that takes us beyond our senses” (Morris and Charlotte). Causation establishes a link between the present and the past and this can be compared to the relation between the cause and effect. Hume tries to show the ways we associate ideas, and the reasons why it’s supposed to stay that way. He doesn’t focus on explaining why we do it this way, he automatically assumes that humans understand this concept.

Read More
1222 Words | 5 Pages

In Section X of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Hume disproves the belief of miracles, “violation of the laws of nature” (Hume 76), as rational justification to believe in religion, specifically Christianity, through the application of the scientific method: a process that uses empirical data to establish accurate cause and effect relationships that configure human judgement. He indicates the two kinds of human reasoning (‘judgement”) are “relations of ideas and matters of facts” (15), which serve to distinguish “probability” from “proof” (23). Relations of ideas are revealed “by mere operation of thought” (15); knowledge acquired without experience, “a priori” (17). According to Hume, it is absurd to predict behavior of objects without having any exposure to it before (experience). The validity of this reasoning is tainted, because the mind makes up an effect that are not true, so the conception is irrational.

Read More
471 Words | 2 Pages

In the movie 12 Angry Men it showed many examples of Hume’s ideas such as skepticism, pluralism, relativism, and reasonable doubt. First let me explain what skepticism is, skepticism doubts the validation of knowledge or particular subject. Pluralism is the position that there are many different kinds of belief—but not all just as good as any other. Relativism is when the position that each belief is just as good as any other, since all beliefs are viewpoint dependent. Reasonable doubt is lack of proof that prevents a judge or jury to convict a defendant for the charged crime.

Read More
948 Words | 4 Pages

According to Merriam-Webster, true means the quality or state of being accurate. So, let’s look at some simple statements we know are true. The sun is hot. Water is wet. The sky

Read More
1401 Words | 6 Pages

For much of the introduction, Berkeley discusses the concept of general and abstract ideas. The author acknowledges the existence of general ideas, claiming that they represent specific “fictions… of the mind” (Berkeley, 14). He gives several examples of general ideas, such as names of people. He argues that the words Peter and John refer

Read More
678 Words | 3 Pages

Hume accepts the information that he acquires from his senses as useful, albeit not fully dependable at first glance: “the senses alone are not implicitly to be depended on; but that we must correct their evidence by reason” (Hume 104). Hume’s theories spring from his observations of the world around him, he uses inductive reasoning to achieve his search for understanding. Since inductive reasoning is based on general observations, to use this method, Hume must be able to accept what he witnesses through his senses. His reasoning interacts with the information he takes in through his senses. He demonstrates this through his billiard-ball example, saying that “in vain, therefore, should we pretend to determine any single event, or infer cause and effect, without the assistance of observation and experience” (Hume 19).

Read More
507 Words | 3 Pages

An example that is related to an idea is when he thinks about God. He breaks down the ideas into three different categories, which are volitions or emotions and judgments. Judgments can be false but not ideas. Some of the thoughts created by someone should be on guard to prevent making a mistake are also called judgments. He also breaks down his ideas into innate, adventitious and invented.

Read More
788 Words | 4 Pages

In this paper, I shall summarise a portion of Hume 's (1748) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Namely, section two Of the Origin of Ideas, and, section three Of the Association of Ideas, focusing on the text 's key points. In section two, Hume posits a significant difference between the mind 's perceptions when we originally experience them and when we later recall them from memory.

Read More
600 Words | 3 Pages

Knowledge is learned from our senses and we as human beings are products tabula rasa. This is the idea that we are born with a clean slate without any kind of preconceived ideas. Hume

Read More
572 Words | 3 Pages

A proposition can be used to state the central idea to the audience. a proposition is a statement with that the speaker wants the audience to agree with. There are three categories of propositions. A provision of fact focuses on whether something is true or false or whenever it did or did not happen. Some of them are undebatable and take only a few moments to prove.

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

One of the main features of this theory is that "truth” consists

Read More
1156 Words | 5 Pages

“[T]heory is the framework for observations and facts. Theories may change, or the way that they are interpreted may change, but the facts themselves don't change.” Once the facts and truths of the idea have been set, they cannot change. Eventually with enough facts (truths) this hypothesis can be claimed as a fact itself. It is deemed truth.

Read More
1146 Words | 5 Pages

Other truths include facts such as, “There are 12 inches in 1 foot.” Then there are truths that people connect to their identity: race, gender, career, etc. People connect the word “truth” to all these subjects. When focusing on the actual definition of truth this doesn’t seem entirely the connect usage of the word.

Read More

More about David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Related Topics

Open Document