ipl-logo

David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

559 Words3 Pages

In Hume’s “An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding”, he provides his explanation on his theory of the basic science of man. After stating that every thought and feeling man has is a perception, he begins by categorizing the distinctions in his theory which basically involve two categories that intersect each other- impressions vs. ideas and simple vs. complex. Hume then goes on to distinguish the difference between the ideas and impressions. Impressions, in Hume’s rationale, are based off of the senses and mental phenomenon where ideas are shaped by impressions. In the passage on page 11, he argues that everything that human’s think of can be derived from “inner or outward sentiment”, and in this case, using “sentiment” in place of the word …show more content…

According to Hume overall, all of our ideas and “feeble perceptions” are founded by impressions (Hume). Basically, Hume insists that all ideas can be traced back and associated with the root impression that one first had. This passage begins with Hume justifying that the mind can conceive anything that we have not previously seen and explains that nothing is beyond what we can think unless there is a complete contradiction such as a square that is circle- “To form monsters, and join incongruous shapes…costs the imagination no more trouble than to conceive the most natural and familiar objects” (Hume). These ideas are explained to be copies of the impressions we have already experienced, and ideas must proceed from our first impressions of an experience (our senses- what we see, feel, hear, desire, ect.). He later explains that resemblance, contiguity of ideas and cause and effect can all be associated with man’s

Show More
Related
2021 Words | 9 Pages

When it comes to the difference between ideas and impressions, from Hume’s philosophical view, all content of the mind is divided into simple and complex ideas and impressions. According to Hume, “simple ideas are copies of impressions” (Lacewing 2)He argues that all ideas can be considered into simple ideas. He also stated that complex ideas may be “well known by definition, which is nothing but an enumeration of those parts or simple ideas, that compose them” (Hume 59). Although Hume does not claim that “complex ideas must be copies of impressions”, he argues “that all complex ideas are constructed out of simple ideas, which are copies of impressions” (Lacewing 3). If we analyze complex ideas, we can come up with the conlclusion that they are copies of feelings.

Read More
776 Words | 4 Pages

The clergy’s actions during the first scaffold scene demonstrate the hypocrisy of Hume’s idea of suspension of justice regarding the sinner. Upon being coerced into extorting Hester’s repentance, the young minister beseeches her to “name thy fellow-sinner and fellow-sufferer... What can thy silence do for him, except it tempt him--yea, compel him, as it were--to add hypocrisy to sin?” (Hawthorne, Ch. 3). Although equally guilty, Dimmesdale’s position within the theocracy enables him to transfer the responsibility of confessing to his lover.

Read More
430 Words | 2 Pages

Ideas are memories or copies of our impressions and are sensations we experience in our day to day activities. 3. In order to establish an understanding of some set of phenomena, an individual’s ideas regarding the phenomenon need to be connected. Hume proposes a set of three fundamental cognitive operations of inference required to connect ideas and establish understanding.

Read More
763 Words | 4 Pages

“Whatever idea was never perceived by the mind was never in the mind” (Locke, 2007, pg3). What we see in the physical world, exists as it is physically there, and is exactly how it appears to us, and isn’t just in our own minds, therefore this equals the mental world which is created by one’s mind, and as John Locke states, if an idea wasn’t fundamentally perceived in one’s mind, then theoretically it wasn’t in the mind to begin with. John Locke separates the fundamentals of ideas, and how they are formed, by separating them into primary and secondary qualities. These qualities are formed through sense data, which is experiences that one has. Locke uses these theories to test his argument against innate knowledge.

Read More
999 Words | 4 Pages

According to David Hume, is it possible for the assertion “Squares have four sides” to be certain and, if so, exactly how and why? “Squares have four sides” can only be certain through induction. In order for it to be deductive, “squares” would have to be the same as “four sides” and vice versa, which it is not. It is inductive because through sensory perception you can see four lines connected to form the sides of a square.

Read More
1835 Words | 8 Pages

If natural faculties are instincts, then Locke agrees with something synonymous with innate ideas. But it’s unclear, and frankly debateable, if the natural faculties contribute to a cumulative argument aimed at discrediting Locke. When we address Hume’s earlier passage, it seems like the most most credible ammunition against Locke. Insofar as Hume claiming that Locke’s ideas (possibly unbeknownst to the philosopher) are reliant on

Read More
1918 Words | 8 Pages

Immanuel Kant's Philosophy, Critique of Pure Reason, demonstrates the connection between the human mind and its various faculties that contribute to the production of experience. Kant's reasoning to the production of experience truly outweighs the reasoning of production explained by David Hume in Treatise. Kant is far more detailed to the point where you would truly get a grasp of what he is say To begin with, in Immanuel Kant’s Transcendental Doctrine of Elements he discusses two concepts, space and time in relation to the mind. For example, he claims, “The effect of an object upon the faculty a representation, so far as we are affected by it, is sensation”(A 20). He is expressing that in order to experience things within the world we

Read More
474 Words | 2 Pages

He also believed that when experiencing something it can be through sensation or reflection. Sensation is what a human interprets through their senses and reflection is the mind acquiring information on its own. In Of Ideas, a quote I found interesting was, “Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas” (Locke 101). I liked that they compared the mind during blank slate to white paper.

Read More
1264 Words | 6 Pages

Hence, the more experience one has with those ideas, one begins to form general ideas, like colour and texture. Knowledge come to express the sensation of external infinites, while reflection takes place within the mind (77). One can have sensation of a puppy, with the ability of reflection one can perceive and remember that puppy. So, the vision that came threw the sensory, one may imagine themselves seeing the puppy they remember. However, ideas must come threw sensation for it to exist within the mind.

Read More
1520 Words | 7 Pages

As a whole, we all use fact and reason to back up our arguments and also show why we are so passionate about the things we love, whether it is an object, activity, person, etc. However, Hume argues that there are limitations of reason and claims that reason is the “slave of the passions.” As we continue to have reasons for our passions, we go along with what we believe to be true. However, because of our own reasoning, we fail to admit the possibilities that either; there are others that have different views than we, individually, have, or that our reasoning could be wrong to begin with but we convinced ourselves that we are right anyway.

Read More
997 Words | 4 Pages

According to Locke (1689, p.5), we have simple ideas when “the ideas they produce in the mind enter by the senses simple; and unmixed.” This means that when we see an object, our senses perceive the object as it is, a whole. For example, when we observe a cup, the colour, texture and temperature; the characteristics are perceived together and we see the cup. This is a simple idea. Locke suggests that simple ideas, like matter and energy, cannot be created or destroyed but can only be thought of, perceive and reflected on by

Read More
1404 Words | 6 Pages

Both philosophers acknowledged that the self was integral to the origin on the knowledge. The self was the start to philosophical reflection. Although Hume did not share the belief in the existence of the self compared to Descartes, he understood humanities with it; "our propension to confound identity with relation is so great, that we are apt to imagine something unknown and mysterious connecting the parts (126) " This exemplifies that Hume is conscious of the wants and desires of humans with their mind and soul.

Read More
167 Words | 1 Pages

Neither Locke nor Hume denied that individuals possess innate properties and metaphorically, both knowledge

Read More
703 Words | 3 Pages

Hume (1738) aptly challenged Descartes in claiming that it is impossible to conceive of a disembodied mind. He argues that for an idea to be legitimate it must be traceable back to sense impressions that have been acquired through experience (The Copy Principle). However, it is not possible to gain an impression of the mind, so it is not possible to have a legitimate idea of the self. We cannot gain an impression from our outer senses, since the mind is non-physical; or through introspection, since I can only introspect a given impression, not the thing that possesses it. While I am introspectively aware of e.g. feelings of anger, I am never aware of the self (the mind, the thinking thing) that contains the anger.

Read More
2086 Words | 9 Pages

All around the world, there is a rapid increase in urbanization which primarily results in the physical growth of urban areas. Therefore cities are growing quicker and as a result, they are changing economically, spatially and socially. Properties within cities are becoming increasingly more expensive with an escalation in demand and therefore older buildings are being revamped as new economic groups enter the neighbourhood. Gentrification is the process whereby younger, middle and upper-income households migrate into the centrally located urban neighbourhoods, such as Woodstock in Cape Town, and the accompanying upgrading of rundown properties that previously had filtered down to lower-income tenants (Levy, D; 1984). It is also linked to the consequent changes in the neighbourhood’s character and culture which can result in the effects and benefits of gentrification not being evenly shared and distributed.

Read More

More about David Hume's An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Related Topics

Open Document