David Hume (1711-1776)

“The Wrecking Ball”

Hume’s Work• A Treatise of Human

Nature (1739-49)• An Enquiry Concerning

Human Understanding (1748)

In Context…• The Enlightenment (late17th-late 18th

Century)o REASON

• The significance of Newton

Empiricism• Regards observation as the only

reliable source of knowledgeo Sense perception is the only reliable method

for gaining knowledge and for testing claims to knowledge

British Empiricism• Francis Bacon (1561-1626)• John Locke (1632-1704)

o “Tabula Rasa”• George Berkeley (1685-1754)

CharacteristicsoAnti-CartesianoNOT metaphysical• Purely epistemological

o Two questions:• How do you know?• What are the limits of knowledge?

Hume: “WE HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE”

• We only have PERCEPTIONS (beliefs which we feel are true)o IMPRESSIONS:

immediate sensations• Simple and complex

o IDEAS: copies of impressions• Simple and complex

• No impression = No idea

All we know are properties

• We don’t know that an apple exists; we just know its propertieso Roundo Redo Tasty

• Try to imagine something that has no propertieso YOU CAN’T!

• We can’t know objects, only their properies• This is called Bundle Theory

The Problem with Causality

• We can never know causeo We can only know custom or habit

Hume’s Conclusions• Reason can never discover the

nature, purpose, or plan of the world.• We have no knowledge of the

material world.• We can never know causes and

effects in the material world.• Metaphysics is a pointless pursuit

Hume introduces Phenomenalism

• The view that we have no rational knowledge beyond what is disclosed in the phenomena of perceptions. Mind is therefore a merely a collection of perceptions.