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Thursday, December 2, 2021

David Hume and his ideas

        
David Hume and his ideas

By Anna Marie Holmes-Crutcher
H01

December 02, 2021


Childhood
David Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His childhood was spent in Ninewells, UK. Hume’s father died after his second birthday. His mother, Katherine Falconer Hume took care of his elder brother, sister, and him. She focused heavily on educating them. Hume was very smart from a young age. He went with his older brother to Edinburgh University when he was just 10 or 11. He studies Greek and Latin as well as history, literature, ancient and modern philosophy, mathematics, and natural philosophy. For more basic history on Hume watch this video.






Religion and toleration

As he grew up, he was taught by stern Scottish Calvinists. Prayers and sermons were part of his home and university life. One of Hume's ideas was the priority of feeling over reason. He connected this to religion. He did not think it was rational to believe in God. This is why people believe he was a mild agnostic because the way he presented himself was as though he believed that there might be a God but he was not sure or there is a God, but it did not make much of a difference. Aside from these beliefs Hume thought that the idea of there being a vindictive God to be a cruel superstition. 


The toleration idea

Hume thought it did not make sense to argue about faith based on facts. He was a strong believer in religious toleration. This means he also believed that we should not treat people who disagree about religion as rational people who have made a reasoning error, but people driven by passion and emotion who should be left in peace.


Works of Hume

Hume wrote a work titled Treatise of Human Nature (1739). In this work there were three different books with topics that included on the understanding of human nature, passions, and morals. Later on, he also published An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751) and Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779). In these works, he dives deeper into individual ideas he mentioned in his first work. 


Below is a video diving into another work of Hume titled Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

An Introduction to David Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding- A Macat Philosophy Analysis




Hume a sceptic

Hume was also a sceptic, and he often went against his own ideas. He was also searching for more and did not want to confine himself to one idea without thinking about it from different perspectives. When Hume mentioned free will he stated that, “all actions of the will have particular causes.” He was saying that all actions are caused by prior motives. An example of his skepticism is when he rejects the idea of liberty that he wrote about in his Treatise because it was incompatible with the necessity compatibilist approach. Hume thought if liberty is defined as "a power of acting or not acting, according to the determinations of the will" then it would not be in conflict with the necessity compatibilist approach.


Back to feeling over reason

Although Hume was skeptical, he also thought it was important to hold onto common sense because it helps people navigate the vast world. This relates back to his idea of feeling over reason because holding onto common sense even if it is not true is not reasonable but it for the purpose of helping people emotionally. Read JENHHB (philarchive.org) for an interesting account on how Hume became a sceptic by Jennifer McRobert. 






Perceptions related to knowledge

Hume had much to say about perceptions of humans. Hume stated, “when I enter intimately into what I call myself I always stumble on a particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe anything but the perception.” Hume is saying that people are not people of reason. He also stated that people are, “nothing but a bundle or collection of different perceptions, which succeed each other with an inconceivable rapidity, and are in a perpetual flux and movement.” This further explains Hume’s idea of perception. He believed that people themselves are made up of perceptions. Knowledge comes from these perceptions. 


Sources

Cotton, J. (2016, October 11). David Hume -. The School of Life Articles. Retrieved November 2021, from https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/david-hume/.

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). David Hume. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved November 2021, from https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Hume.

Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2021, from https://iep.utm.edu/hume/.

Internet encyclopedia of philosophy. (n.d.). Retrieved November 2021, from https://iep.utm.edu/humemora/.

Morris, W. E., & Brown, C. R. (2019, April 17). David Hume. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved, November 2021, from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/hume/.


            Discussion

    How does Hume's view of perception differ from other philosophers?
 
    Does Hume's view of religion and religious toleration seem strange, or does it make sense?
   
    Is the idea of feeling over reason appealing?

    Do you agree with Hume's way of defining liberty differently to make it fit with the compatibilist approach?

    Do you also see humans as "a bundle... of different perceptions" like Hume states?


    
    



1 comment:

  1. "he often went against his own ideas" -- can you give an example? Philosophers generally do not go against their own ideas.

    Can you clarify your point about Hume and compatibilism? It's a little murky.

    "Hume is saying that people are not people of reason" -- not quite. He is saying that reason should defer to "the passions"... can you explain what he means?

    "people themselves are made up of perceptions. Knowledge comes from these perceptions." But he's a skeptic. We have perceptions, but (acc'ing to Hume) not knowledge in the strong sense sought by the likes of Descartes. So what DOES come from perceptions?

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