David Hume ( ; born David Home ; May 7, 1711 NS (26 April 1711 OS) - August 25, 1776 was a distinguished philosopher, historian, economist and Scottish scholar today, for his highly influential system of philosophical empiricism, skepticism and naturalism. Hume's empirical approach to philosophy placed him on John Locke, Francis Bacon, and Thomas Hobbes as the English Empiricist. with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume attempted to create a total humanistic natural science which examined the psychological basis of human nature.to philosophical rationalists, Hume argued that desire rather than reason governs human behavior. opposed to the existence of innate ideas, stating that all human knowledge is based solely on experience: Hume thus maintains that original knowledge must be traceable directly to the perceived object in experience, or ha sil of abstract reasoning about the relationship between ideas derived from experience, calling the rest "nothing more than sophism and illusion", the dichotomy is then named Hume's fork.
In what is sometimes referred to as the problem of Hume's induction, he argues that inductive reasoning and conviction in causality can not be justified rationally; on the contrary, our belief in causality and induced results of mental habits and habits, and can only be attributed to the experience of "constant conjunctions" of events. This is because we can never really feel that one event causes the other, but only that they are always joined. Thus, to draw the causal conclusion from past experience it is necessary to assume that the future will resemble the past, a presupposition that can not itself be based on previous experience.
Hume's rejection of the teleological argument for the existence of God, the argument of design, is generally regarded as the most significant intellectual effort to refute the argument prior to Darwinism.
Hume is also a sentimentalist who argues that ethics is based on emotion or sentiment rather than abstract moral principles, which famously state that "the reason is, and should only be a slave of lust". Hume's moral theory has been seen as a unique attempt to synthesize the modern sentimentalist moral tradition that belongs to Hume, with the traditions of virtue ethics of ancient philosophy, with which Hume agrees in relation to character traits, not actions or consequences, as in the end. the right object for moral evaluation. Hume maintains an initial commitment to the naturalistic explanation of moral phenomena, and is usually considered first to clearly describe the supposed problem, or the idea that a fact statement alone will never produce a normative conclusion of what should be done. Hume also denies that humans have a true self-concept, and claim that we have only a series of sensations, and that the self is nothing more than a bundle of causally related perceptions. Hume's theory of free conformity will take determinism of cause and effect fully compatible with human freedom.
Hume influenced utilitarianism, logical positivism, Immanuel Kant, philosophy of science, early analytic philosophy, cognitive science, theology, and other movements and thinkers. Kant himself praised Hume as the driving force behind his philosophical thought that had awakened him from his "dogmatic sleep".
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Biography
Early life and education
David Hume is the second of two sons born to Joseph Home of Ninewells, a lawyer, and his wife, The Hon. Katherine ( nÃÆ' Â © e Falconer), daughter of Sir David Falconer. He was born on April 26, 1711 (Old Style) in a tenement house on the north side of Lawnmarket in Edinburgh. Hume's father died when Hume was little, right after his second birthday, and he was raised by his mother, who never remarried. He changed the spelling of his name in 1734, due to the fact that his family name Home, was pronounced Hume, unknown in the UK. Throughout his life Hume, who had never married, spent an occasional time at his family's home in Ninewells in Berwickshire, which had belonged to his family since the sixteenth century. His finances as a youth are very "lean". His family is not rich, and, as a younger son, he has a small heritage to live. Therefore he was forced to make a living somehow.
Hume attended Edinburgh University at a very young age at the beginning of twelve (probably as young as ten years) by the time fourteen was normal. At first, because of his family, he was considered a career in law, but came to, in his words, "an insuperable reluctance to everything except the pursuit of General Philosophy and Learning, and while [my family] dreamed I was researching Voet and Vinnius, Cicero and Virgil are writers I secretly eat. " He had little respect for the professors of his time, telling a friend in 1735 that "nothing can be learned from a Professor, which can not be fulfilled in the Book". Hume did not pass.
Aged about 18 years old, he made a philosophical discovery that opened up for him the "New Scenes of Ideas," which inspired him "to throw any Fun or Other Business to apply fully to it". He does not tell what this scene is, and commentators have offered various speculations. One popular interpretation, prominent in the contemporary Hume scholarship, is that the new "scene of thought" is Hume's consciousness that Francis Hutcheson's moral "moral" theory can be applied to understanding as well. Because of this inspiration, Hume began to spend at least ten years reading and writing. He soon arrived at the brink of a mental disorder, suffering from what the doctor diagnosed as "Learning Disease". Hume writes that it started with a cold attitude, which he declared as "Temper Lack", which lasted about nine months. Then, some mange spots appeared on his fingers. This is what persuaded Doctor Hume to make his diagnosis. Hume wrote that he "followed the Bitter Course and the Anti-Hysteric Pill", drunk with a glass of wine every day. Hume also decided to have a more active life to better continue his learning. His health improved somewhat, but, in 1731, he suffered from a voracious appetite and heart palpitation. After eating well for some time, he changed from "tall, slender and raw-bon" to "sturdy, strong [and] healthy as". Indeed, Hume would become famous in his day because of his "stomach", and his fondness for ports and good cheese.
Career
At the age of 25, Hume, despite having a noble ancestor, has no source of income and does not have an educated profession. As usual in his time, he became a merchant assistant, but he had to leave his hometown, Scotland. He traveled through Bristol to La FlÃÆ'¨che in Anjou, France. There he often discussed with the Jesuits from the College of La FlÃÆ'¨che.
While Hume slipped in his attempt to start his university career by protesting his "atheism" and lamenting that his literary debut, A Treatse of Human Nature, 'fell dead-born from the press', he found literature in his life as an essayist, and a career as a librarian at Edinburgh University. His tenure there, and access to the research material he gave, ultimately resulted in Hume's massive six-volume volume The History of England, which became the best-selling book and history of British standards of his day. Hume describes his "passion for literary literature" as "the will of power" and judges his two late works, called "first" and "second" questions, An Investigation Concerning Human Understanding and An Investigation Concerning the Principles of Morals, respectively, as his greatest literary and philosophical achievements, asks his contemporaries to judge him on the merits of subsequent texts alone, rather than a more radical formulation of his young youth. , rejected his philosophical debut as a juvenile: "A work that the Author had projected before he left the College." In spite of Hume's protests, the general consensus exists today that Hume's most important arguments and different philosophically doctrines are found in the original form they took in Minutes . Hume was only 23 years old when he started this work and is now considered one of the most important in the history of Western philosophy.
He worked for four years on his first major work, A Treatise of Human Nature , subtitle "Becoming an Effort to Introduce Experimental Reasoning Methods to Moral Subjects", completed it in 1738 at the age of 28. Although many scholars today regard the Treatise as Hume's most important work and one of the most important books in Western philosophy, critics in Great Britain at that time disagreed, describing it as "abstract and incomprehensible". Since Hume spent most of his savings over the four years, he decided "to make very rigid austerity will reduce my shortcomings, to maintain my independence, and to regard every object as disgusting except for my increased talent in literature". Despite his disappointment, Hume later wrote, "Naturally from a cheerful and upbeat temperament, I soon recover from the blow and be judged with great enthusiasm for my studies in this country." There, in an attempt to make his larger work better known and more understandable, he published the Abstract of the Recently Published Book as a summary of the main doctrines of the Risalah , without expressing his authorship. Although there is some academic speculation about who actually wrote this pamphlet, it is generally regarded as the work of Hume.
After the publication of the Moral and Political Essay in 1741, included in later editions called Essay, Moral, Political, and Literary, Hume applied to the Pneumatic and Moral Philosophy Chairman at the University of Edinburgh. However, the position was given to William Cleghorn after the Edinburgh ministers petitioned the city council not to appoint Hume because he was seen as an atheist.
During 1745 Jacobite appeared, Hume taught the Marquess of Annandale (1720-92), which was "considered crazy". This engagement ended in a mess after about a year. However, it was at that moment that Hume began his great history of The History of England. It took him fifteen years and ran into over a million words. During this time he was also involved with the Canongate Theater through his friend John Home, a preacher.
In this context, he deals with Lord Monboddo and other Scottish Illuminations in Edinburgh. From 1746, Hume served for three years as secretary general of James St Clair, who became envoy to Turin and Vienna courts. At that time Hume also wrote the Philosophical Essay on Human Understanding, which was later published as an Investigation of Human Understanding . Often called First Inquiry, it proved to be a bit more successful than the Treatise, possibly due to the publication of its short autobiography My Own Life, which made it difficult for friends The first investigation ". In 1749 he went to live with his brother in the countryside.
Hume's religious views are often suspect. It was necessary in the 1750s for his friends to avoid a trial against him on the allegations of heresy. However, he "will not come and can not be compelled to attend if he says he is not a member of the Established Church". Hume failed to get a philosophy chair at Glasgow University because of his religious views as well. He has published the Philosophy of Essays at this time that is clearly anti-religious. Even Adam Smith, his personal friend who had vacated the philosophical chair of Glasgow, opposed his appointment for fear that public opinion would oppose him.
Hume returned to Edinburgh in 1751. In the following year "The Faculty of Advocates chose me as their Librarian, an office that I received little or no emolument, but who gave me orders from a large library". This source enabled him to continue his historical research for the The History of England . Hume's Volume of Political Discourse , written in 1749 and published by Kincaid & amp; Donaldson in 1752, was the only work he considered successful in the first publication.
Finally, with the publication of six volumes of The History of England between 1754 and 1762, Hume achieved the fame he coveted. The volumes trace the events of the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution of 1688, and are the bestsellers of his day.
Hume was also an old friend of booksellers Andrew Millar, who sold Hume's History (after getting the rights of Scottish book dealer Gavin Hamilton), though the relationship was sometimes complicated. The letter between them explains the attractiveness of both men in the success of History. Next year
From 1763 to 1765, Hume was invited to attend Lord Hertford in Paris, where he became secretary of the British embassy. Hume was well received in Paris, and when there he met Isaac de Pinto In 1766, Hume left Paris to accompany Jean-Jacques Rousseau to England. Arriving in England, Hume and Rousseau fell. Hume was quite worried about his reputation damage from the dispute with Rousseau (who is commonly believed to have suffered paranoia) had written an account of the dispute, which he titled, quite aptly "The concise and original account of the dispute between Mr. Hume and Mr. Rousseau. "In 1765, he served as ChargÃÆ' Â d'English d'affaires, writing" send to the Secretary of State Secretary of England ". He writes about his Paris life, "I really hope often for the plain rudeness of The Poker Club of Edinburgh... to improve and qualify so many pleasures". In 1766, after returning to England, Hume encouraged Lord Hertford to invest in a number of slave estates, acquired by George Colebrooke and others on the Windward Islands. In 1767, Hume was appointed Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Northern Department. Here he writes that he was given "all the secrets of the Kingdom". In 1769, he returned to James's Court in Edinburgh, and then lived, from 1771 until his death in 1776, on the southwest corner of St. Andrew's Square in Edinburgh's New Town, where now 21 Saint David Street. A popular story, consistent with some historical evidence, suggests a path might be named Hume.
In the final year of his life, Hume wrote a very short essay of autobiography entitled "My Own Life" which summarizes his entire life in "less than 5 pages", and mainly contains many interesting assessments that have attracted subsequent readers. from Hume. The 18th-century scholar of literature, Donald Seibert, judges it as "a remarkable autobiography, though it may not have the usual attractions of the genre.Anyone who craves for surprising revelations or funny anecdotes is better to look elsewhere." Hume here confesses his belief that "the love of literary literature" has served as his "ruling passion" in life, and claims that this desire "never angers me, though my disappointment often occurs." One of the disappointments that Hume discussed in mini-autobiography was his disappointment that with the initial literary acceptance of the Treatise he claimed to have been overcome by the success of the Essay: the work was well received, and immediately made me completely forget my previous disappointment ". Perhaps most important is Hume's revelation on his own retrospective judgment that the apparent failings on his philosophical debut "have gone a step further than the way rather than the problem." Hume thus indicates that "I have been guilty of a very ordinary affair, in going to the press too early." Hume gives an unambiguous self-assessment of the relative value of his works: "My investigation of the Moral Principles, which in my opinion (which should not judge the subject) are all my writings, historical, philosophical, or literary, incomplete "Hume also made a number of self-assessments in the essay, writing his social relationship that" My company is unacceptable to the young and careless, and for morality and literature, "noting its complex relationship with religion, as well as the state, that" although I do not want to expose myself to the anger of civil and religious factions, they seem to be disarmed for their uncontrollable anger, "and acknowledge his character that" My friends never have a chance to defend themselves. and my behavior. "Hume concluded an essay with an honest admission:" I can not say no there is arrogance in making this oration of the funeral itself, but I hope it is not misplaced; and this is a matter of fact that is easy to clean and ensure. "
Diarist and biographer James Boswell spotted Hume a few weeks before his death, which came from some form of stomach cancer. Hume informs him that he sincerely believes it as "the most unreasonable fantasy" that there may be life after death. This meeting was dramatized in semi-fictive form for the BBC by Michael Ignatieff as the Dialog in Dark . Hume requested that his body be buried in "simple Roman tombs". In his will he asked to be written only with the name and year of his birth and death, "leave it to Posterity to add Rest". He stood, as he had hoped, on the southwestern slopes of Calton Hill, at Old Calton Cemetery. Adam Smith then recounts Hume's funny speculation that he might ask Charon to give him a few more years of life to see "the fall of some superstitious system in effect." The boatman replied, "You wandering around naughty, it will not happen for hundreds of years... Get in the boat as soon as this".
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In the introduction to A Treatise of Human Nature , Hume writes, "'It is clear that all the sciences have relationships, more or less, with human nature... Even Mathematics, Natural Philosophy and Nature some sizes depend on human science. "He also writes that human science is" the only strong foundation for other sciences "and that the method for this science requires experience and observation as the basis of logical argument. In this aspect of Hume's thought, the philosophical historian Frederick Copleston wrote that it was Hume's aim to apply to the human sciences of the method of experimental philosophy (the term that at the moment implies the philosophy of Nature), and that "Hume's plan is to extend to philosophy in general methodological limitations Newtonian physics ".
To date, Hume is seen as a forerunner of logical positivism; a form of anti-metaphysical empiricism. According to logical positivists, unless statements can be verified by experience, or else are true or false by definition (ie tautological or contradictory), then that does not mean (this is a summary statement of their verification principle). Hume, in this view, is a proto-positivist, who, in his philosophical writings, tries to demonstrate how the ordinary propositions of objects, causal relationships, self, and so on are semantically equivalent to the proposition of one's experience.
Many commentators have since rejected this understanding of Humean empiricism, emphasizing epistemological (not semantic) readings of the project. In this contradictory view, Hume's empiricism consists of the idea that it is our knowledge, and not our ability to conceive, limited to what can be experienced. Hume thinks that we can form beliefs about what goes beyond possible experiences, through faculty operations such as habits and imagination, but he is skeptical about claims of knowledge on this basis.
Impressions and ideas
One of the foremost doctrines of Hume's philosophy, expressed in the first line of the Apocalypse, is his opinion that the mind consists of his mental perception, or the mental object present for it, and is divided into two categories: impressions and ideas . The treatise of Hume then opens with the words: 'All perceptions of the human mind settle themselves into two different types, which I shall call IMPRESSIONS and IDEAS. "Hume states that" I believe it would not be necessary to use many words in explaining these differences "and commentators have generally taken Hume to distinguish between feelings and thinking.Hont controversially, Hume can regard the difference in some respects as a degree matter, since he take an "impression" to be distinguished from ideas, on the basis of their strength, liveliness, and agility, or what Henry Allison calls the "FLV criterion" in his book on Hume.The idea is a "faint" impression, for example, experiencing painful touching sensations the handle of hot pot is stronger than just thinking about touching a hot griddle According to Hume, the impression is meant to be the original form of all our ideas, and Don Garret has coined the term "copy principle" to refer to the doctrine of Hume rine that all ideas are ultimately all copied from some genuine impression, whether it's passion or sensation, from where they came from.
After building the power of impressions and ideas, these two categories are further elaborated into simple and complex: simple impressions and ideas, as well as complex impressions and ideas. Hume states that "simple perceptions or impressions and ideas such as recognizing no distinction or separation," while "the complex is contrary to this, and can be divided into sections." When looking at apples, a person experiences a variety of color sensations, which Hume sees as a complex impression. Similarly, a person experiences various sensations of taste, tactile sensation, and odor sensation when biting apples, with the overall sensation again becoming a complicated impression. Thinking about apples allows one to form complex ideas, made of the same parts as the complex impression they develop, but which are also less powerful. Hume believes that complex perceptions can be broken down into smaller and smaller sections until perceptions are achieved that do not have their own parts, and this perception is thus called simple.
The imagination of a person, regardless of how unlimited it may seem, is limited to the ability of the mind to recombine the information it has gained from the body's sensory experience (ideas derived from impressions). Moreover, "because our imagination takes on the most basic ideas and guides us to form new ones, it is directed by the three principles of association, that is, resemblance, touch, and cause and effect." The principle of similarity refers to the tendency of ideas to be related if the objects they represent are similar to each other. For example, someone who sees interest illustrations can understand the idea of ​​physical interest because the idea of ​​an object illustrated is related to the idea of ​​a physical object. The principle of proximity illustrates the tendency of ideas to be related if the objects they represent are close to each other in time or space, as when the thought of a crayon in the box leads one to think of the crayons adjacent to it. Finally, the principle of cause and effect refers to the tendency of ideas to be related if the objects they represent are causally related, explaining how to remember broken windows can make a person think about baseball that causes windows to break.
Hume elaborates more on this principle of cause and effect. When one observes that an object or event consistently produces the same object or event, it results in "the hope that a particular event (a 'cause') will be followed by another (and 'continuous') previous incident associated with me. " Hume calls this principle of habit, or habit, saying that "the habit... makes our experience useful to us, and makes us hope, for the future, the same train of events with which it has appeared in the past." However, although custom can serve as a guide in life, it still represents only hope. In other words, "experience can not build the necessary connection between cause and effect, because we can imagine without contradiction a case in which the cause does not produce the usual effect... the reason why we mistakenly conclude that something is the cause. produces its effects because our past experiences have made us habituated to think like this. "Continuing this idea, Hume argued that" only in the realm of pure ideas, logic, and mathematics, does not depend on awareness of the direct consciousness of reality, because it is safely... applied - all other sciences are reduced to probability. "He uses this skepticism to reject metaphysics and many theological views on the ground that they are not based on fact and observation, and therefore beyond the reach of human understanding.
Induction and causes
The cornerstone of Hume's epistemology is the problem of induction. This might be Hume's area of ​​thought where his doubts about the power of human reason are most prominent. The problem revolves around the plausible inductive reasoning, that is, the reason of the observed object behavior for their behavior when not observed. As Hume writes, concerns induce how things behave when they go "beyond present sense testimonies, or records of our memories". Hume argues that we tend to believe that things behave regularly, meaning that the patterns in the behavior of objects seem to persist into the future, and across an unobserved moment. Hume's argument is that we can not rationally justify the claim that nature will continue uniformly, for justification comes only in two varieties - demonstrative reasoning and reasoning possible - and both are inadequate. With regard to demonstrative thinking, Hume argues that the principle of uniformity can not be shown, because "consistent and imaginable" that nature may cease to be commonplace. Turning to a possible reason, Hume argues that we can not withstand the nature that will continue uniformly because it has been in the past. Since this uses very some kind of reasoning (induction) in question, it would be a circular reason. Thus, no form of justification will rationally guarantee our inductive conclusion.
Hume's solution to this problem is to state that, rather than reason, natural instinct explains human practice in making inductive conclusions. He asserted that "Nature, with its absolute and untraceable need has made us decide to breathe and breathe." Agreed, the philosopher John D. Kenyon wrote: "The reason may succeed in raising doubts about the truth of the conclusion of natural inductive conclusions for only a moment... but the faithfulness of animal faith will protect us from excessive caution and sterile suspensions." Charles Sanders Peirce has rejected Hume's solution, while, some, like Kant and Karl Popper, see that Hume's analysis "has become the most fundamental challenge to all claims of human knowledge."
The idea of ​​causation is closely related to the problem of induction. According to Hume, we reason inductively by connecting events that occur continuously. It is an act of mental association that is the basis of our causal concept. There are at least three interpretations of Hume's theories of kufa represented in the literature: (1) logical positivist; (2) skeptical realists; and (3) quasi-realists.
David Hume acknowledges that there is an ongoing event, mankind can not guarantee that these events are caused by previous events or if they are independent examples. Hume opposes the widely accepted theory of Causation that 'all events have a certain direction or reason.' Hume therefore devised his theory of cause and effect, which he formed through his empirical and skeptical beliefs. He divides causation, into two realms "All human reason objects or natural inquiry can be divided into two types, namely, Relationship Ideas, and Fact Facts". Relationship The idea is a priori, and represents the universal bond between ideas that mark the pillars of human thought. Matters of Fact relies on observers and experiences. They are often not universally assumed to be true among many people. Hume is an Empiricist, which means he believes "cause and effect can be found not for reasons but by experience". Hume then says that even with the perspective of the past, humans can not dictate future events because the mind of the past is limited, compared to the possibility of the future. Hume's separation between Matters of Fact and Relations of Ideas is often referred to as "Hume's Fork". Hume explains his theory of causality and causal conclusion by division into three distinct parts. In these three branches he explains his ideas, in addition to comparing and comparing his views with his predecessors. These branches are Critical Phase, Constructive Phase, and Confidence. In the Critical Phase, Hume denies the theory of causation of his predecessor. Furthermore, Hume uses the Constructive Phase to resolve any doubts a reader might have in viewing the Critical Phase. "Habit or Custom" fixes a gap in reasoning that occurs without the human mind even realizing it. Associating ideas has become the nature of the human mind. This "makes us look forward to the future, the same train of events with which it has appeared in the past." However, Hume says that this association can not be trusted because the range of the human mind to understand the past does not necessarily apply to a far and wide future. This brings Hume to the third branch of the causal inference, Confidence. Confidence is what drives the human mind to sustain future expectations based on past experiences. Throughout his explanation of causal inference, Hume argues that the future is uncertain of the repetition of the past and the only way to justify induction is through uniformity.
The logical positivist interpretation is that Hume analyzes a causal proposition, such as "A causes B", in terms of regularity in perception: "A causes B" equals "Whenever A-type event occurs, B-type follows," where " anytime "refers to all possible perceptions. In his book Treatise of Human Nature , Hume writes:
strength and need... is... the quality of perception, not the object... perceived by the soul and not understood externally in the body.
This view was rejected by skeptical realists, who argued that Hume thought that cause and effect were more than just a series of ordinary events. Hume says that when two events join causally, the necessary connections support the conjunction:
Should we rest satisfied with these two relations of contact and succession, as affording the complete idea of ​​causality? By no means... there is a necessary connection to consider.
Philosopher Angela Coventry writes that, for Hume, "there is nothing in the particular instance of cause and effect involving external objects that denote the idea of ​​power or connection required" and that "we do not know the forces operating between objects". However, while rejecting the possibility of knowing the power between objects, Hume accepts the causal principle, writes, "I have never asserted such a nonsensical proposition as something that could arise for no reason."
It has been argued that, while Hume does not think that causes can be reduced to pure order, he is also not a fully fledged realist. Philosopher Simon Blackburn calls this a quasi-realist reading. Blackburn writes that "Someone talking about the cause is voicing a different mental set: he is not at all in the same state as someone who only describes the regular sequence." In Hume's words, "nothing is more common than applies to the external body of every sensation internal, which they display ".
Self
Empirical philosophers, like Hume and Berkeley, like the bundle theory of personal identity. In this theory, "the mind itself, far from independent forces, is merely a" set of perceptions "without unity or cohesive qualities." The self is nothing more than a collection of experiences related to causality and likeness; or, more precisely, that an empirically justified idea of ​​oneself is only the idea of ​​such a bundle. This view is continued by, for example, a positivist translator, who views Hume as suggesting that terms such as "self," "person," or "mind" refer to the "sensory-sense collection". The modern version of the theory of mind bundles has been put forward by Derek Parfit in his book Reason and People .
However, some philosophers criticized Hume's interpretation of the bundle theory of personal identity. They argue that different selves can have perceptions that stand in the relationship of similarity and causality with each other. Thus, perceptions must have been fragmented into different "bundles" before they can be linked according to the relationship of similarity and causality. In other words, the mind must already have a unity that can not be produced, or is based on these relationships alone. Because bundle-theory interpretation describes Hume as an answer to an ontological question, philosophers, such as Galen Strawson, who saw Hume not so concerned with such questions have questioned whether the view really belonged to Hume. Instead, it is suggested by Strawson that Hume may have answered the epistemological question of the causal origin of our self-concept. In the Appendix to Risks , Hume declares himself dissatisfied with his previous account of his personal identity in Book 1. The philosopher Corliss Swain notes that "The commentator agrees that if Hume finds a new problem" when he reviews the section on personal identity, "he will not come about his nature in the Appendix." One of Hume's interpretations of the self has been debated by philosopher and psychologist James Giles. In his view, Hume does not argue for bundle theory, which is a form of reductionism, but rather an eliminative view of self. That is, instead of reducing himself to a series of perceptions, Hume rejects the notion of self at all. In this interpretation, Hume proposes "selfless theory" and thus has much in common with Buddhist thought. At this point, psychologist Alison Gopnik argues that Hume was in a position to learn about Buddhist thought during his time in France in the 1730s.
Practical reasons
The basic question about the practical reason for Hume is whether the standard or principle exists (and if it is true, as it is) for practical reasons, which are also authoritative for all rational beings, dictates the intentions and actions of people. Hume was primarily considered anti-rationalist, denying the possibility for practical reasons as a principle to exist, although other philosophers such as Christine Korsgaard, Jean Hampton, and Elijah Millgram claimed that Hume was not as anti-rationalist as he was just skeptical of practical reasons.
Hume denies the existence of a practical reason as a principle because he claims reason has no effect on morality, because morality is capable of producing effects on people who can not be created by reason alone. As Hume explains in the Treatise of Human Nature (1740): "Morals arouse passion, and produce or prevent action The reason itself is really impotent in this case, therefore the rule of morality is not conclusion of our reasons. "
For practical reasons it should govern our actions (in theory), Hume rejects a practical reason on the grounds that reason can not be directly opposed to lust. As Hume says, "The reason is, and it should just be a slave of lust, and can never pretend to other offices besides serving and obeying them." Reason is less important than any passion because reason does not have original influence, while "Spirit is the original existence, or, if you will, modification of existence".
The practical reason also relates to the value of action rather than the truth of the proposition, so Hume believes that the weakness of reason in influencing morality proves that practical reason can not be authoritative for all rational beings, for morality is essential to dictate the intentions and actions of people.
Ethics
Hume's writings on ethics begin at the Treatise and are refined in his book An Interview Concerning the Principles of Morals (1751). His view of ethics is that "[m] oral decisions are based on moral sentiments." It does not know that it regulates ethical actions, but feelings. For the reason that reason can not be behind morality, he writes:
Morals arouse passion, and produce or prevent action. Reason itself is really impotent in this regard. Therefore, the rule of morality is not the conclusion of our reason.
Hume's sentimentalism of morality shared by his close friends, Adam Smith, and Hume and Smith were influenced by the moral reflection of their older, contemporary Francis Hutcheson. Peter Singer claims that Hume's argument that morality can not have a rational basis alone "is enough to give him a place in the history of ethics".
Hume also put forward the problem should, then called Hume's Law, deny the possibility of logically getting what should be from what is . He writes in the Treatise that in every system of morality he reads, the author begins by stating the facts of the world, but then suddenly always refers to what should be his case. Hume demands that reason should be given to conclude what should happen, from what happened. This is because "it seems totally unimaginable, how this new relationship can be a deduction from others".
Hume's ethical theory has been influential in modern meta-ethical theory, helping to inspire emotivism, and ethical and non-cognitivistic expressiveness, as well as General Allan Gibbard's theory of moral judgment and rationality assessment.
Aesthetics
Hume's ideas on aesthetics and theories of art spread throughout his works, but mainly related to his ethical writings, as well as essays About the Standard of Flavor and Tragedy . His views are rooted in the work of Joseph Addison and Francis Hutcheson. In Risalah he writes about the relationship between beauty and deformity and the opposite and virtue, and his later writings on this subject continue to draw alignments of beauty and deformity in art, with behavior and character.
In From Standard Pain , Hume argues that no rules can be made about what constitutes a tasteful object. However, trustworthy sense critics can be recognized as objective, sensible and unbiased, and have extensive experience. Of Tragedy addresses the question of why humans enjoy tragic drama. Hume is concerned with how the audience finds pleasure in the sadness and anxiety depicted in a tragedy. He argues that this is because the audience is aware that he is witnessing a dramatic show. There is a pleasure in realizing that the terrible event being displayed is actually fiction. Furthermore, Hume sets out rules to educate people in terms of right taste and behavior, and his writing in this field is very influential on the aesthetics of English and Anglo-Saxon.
free will, determinism, and responsibility
Hume, along with Thomas Hobbes, is said to be a classic compatibile on the notions of freedom and determinism. The compatibilism thesis seeks to reconcile human freedom with the mechanical belief that humans are part of a deterministic universe, in which events are governed by physical law. Hume, for this purpose, was strongly influenced by the scientific revolution and especially Sir Isaac Newton. Hume argues that disputes over the compatibility of freedom and determinism have continued for two thousand years with ambiguous terminology. He writes: "From this circumstance alone, that controversy has long been kept in the feet... we can assume that there is some ambiguity in the expression", and that different parties disagree using different meanings for the same term.
Hume defines the concept of necessity as "uniformity, which can be observed in the operations of nature, in which similar things are constantly combined together", and freedom as "the force of action or inaction, according to the determination of the will." He then argues that, by this definition, not only are they compatible, but freedom requires needs. Because if our actions are not needed in the above sense, they will "have so little relation to the motives, tendencies and circumstances, that one does not follow with a certain degree of uniformity of the other". But if our actions are not connected with the will, then our actions will never be free: they will be a matter of "coincidence, which is universally permitted to not exist". The Australian philosopher John Passmore wrote that confusion has arisen because "necessity" has been interpreted as "necessary relationship". After this has been abandoned, Hume argues that "freedom and need will be found not in conflict with one another".
In addition, Hume goes on to state that to be morally responsible requires that our behavior be caused or prosecuted because, as he writes:
The acts are, in essence, temporary and perishable; and where they do not proceed from some of the causes in the characters and dispositions of those who do them, they can not match their honor, if good; or evil, if evil.
Hume explains the relationship between causality and our ability to rationally make the decision of this mind's inference. Humans assess the situation based on certain events that have been determined and of the form is an option. Hume believes that this choice is made spontaneously. Hume calls this form of decision making freedom spontaneity.
Educational writer Richard Wright considers that Hume's position rejects the famous moral riddle associated with the French philosopher Jean Buridan. Buridan's ass riddle depicts a hungry mule. The donkey has both sides bales apart from the straw, which is the same distance from it. The problem concerns the bale taken by the donkey. Buridan is said to believe that the donkey will die, because he has no autonomy. Donses are unable to form rational decisions because there is no motive for choosing a bales of straw than others. However, human beings are different, because a human being placed in a position where he is forced to choose one bread from another bread will take the decision to take one as a substitute for another. For Buridan, man has an autonomous capacity, and he recognizes choices that are ultimately made on the basis of chance, since both breads are identical. However, Wright says that Hume completely rejected this idea, arguing that humans would spontaneously act in such situations because he faced an impending death if he failed to do so. Such a decision is not made on the basis of opportunity, but rather on necessity and spontaneity, given the predetermined events leading to adversity.
Hume's argument is supported by modern compatibilists like R. E. Hobart, the pseudonym of the philosopher Dickinson S. Miller. However, P. F. Strawson argues that the question of whether we are mutually morally responsible ultimately does not depend on the truth or falsity of a metaphysical thesis such as determinism. This is because holding each other is a non-rational human sentiment not based on such a thesis.
Posts on religion
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that Hume "wrote by force and sharply on almost every central question in religious philosophy." "His writings on the subject of religion are the most important and influential contributions to this topic." His writings in this field include philosophy, psychology, history, and anthropology of religious thought. All these aspects are discussed in Hume's 1757 dissertation, The Natural History of Religion . Here he argues that the monotheistic religion of Judaism, Christianity and Islam all originated from earlier polytheistic religions. He also suggested that all religious beliefs "trace, in the end, the fear of the unknown." Hume also writes about religious subjects in the first Question , and later in the Dialogue on Nature Religion .
Religious view
Though he writes much about religion, Hume's personal views are not clear, and there is much discussion about his religious position. His contemporaries regard him as an atheist, or at least not Christian, and the Church of Scotland is seriously considering bringing allegations of disloyalty to it. The fact that his contemporaries think that he may be an atheist is exemplified by the story that Hume likes to tell:
The best theologian he had ever met, he often said, was an old Edinburgh shark who, after recognizing him as the atheist Hume, refused to pull him out of the swamp where he fell until he declared that he was a Christian and repeated the Lord's Prayer.
However, in works like Of Superstition and Enthusiasm , Hume in particular seems to support the standard religious view of time and place. This still means that he can be very critical of the Catholic Church, rejecting it with the usual Protestant accusations of superstition and idolatry, and refusing to be idolatry seen by his companions as an uncivilized belief. He is also considered an extreme Protestant sect, whose members are called "enthusiasts", to become religious corrupters. On the contrary, in his book The Natural History of Religion, Hume presents the argument that shows that polytheism has much to praise on monotheism.
Philosopher Paul Russell writes that it is possible that Hume is skeptical about religious beliefs, but not to the degree of complete atheism. He argues that perhaps Hume's position is best characterized by the term "no religion", while philosopher David O'Connor argues that Hume's last position is "very weak". For O'Connor, "Hume's position is very ironic, because as he leans toward the weak form of deism, he seriously doubts that we can find a sufficiently good balance of evidence to justify accepting any religious position." He adds that Hume "does not believe in the God of standard theism... but he does not rule out all the concepts of divinity", and that "ambiguity suits his purpose, and this creates difficulties in determining his final position on religion".
Draft arguments
One of the traditional topics of natural theology is the existence of God, and one of the arguments a posteriori for this is the argument of design or teleological argument. The argument is that the existence of God can be proved by a clear design in the complexity of the world. EncyclopÃÆ'Â|dia Britannica states that this is "the most popular, because it is most accessible from theistic arguments... which identify the design evidence in nature, deduce from them a divine designer... The fact that the universe as a whole is a coherent and efficient system works also, in this view, demonstrates the divine intelligence behind it. "
In the Inquiry on Human Understanding , Hume writes that the design argument seems to depend on our experience, and its proponents of "always assume the universe, a singular and incomparable effect, proof of God, less singular and incomparable. "The philosopher Louise E. Loeb notes that Hume says that only experience and observation can serve as our guide to drawing conclusions about the relationship between events, but according to Hume," we do not observe God or any other universe, and hence nothing to do with them. There is no observed relationship to ground the conclusions either on the expanded object or to God, as an unobserved cause. "
Hume also criticized the argument in the Dialogue on Nature Religion (1779). In this case, he suggests that, even if the world is a system that functions less smoothly, this may be simply the result of "the possibility of permutation of particles falling into temporary or permanent defending orders, thus having the appearance of Design."
A century later, the idea of ​​orderlessness made more sense by Charles Darwin's discovery that the adaptation of life forms was the result of natural selection of inherited characteristics. For the philosopher James D. Madden, it is "Hume, rivaled only by Darwin, who has undertaken the most debilitating in principle our belief in the design arguments among all the characters in the Western intellectual tradition."
Finally, Hume discusses a version of anthropic principle, which is the idea that the theories of the universe are limited by the need to allow human existence in it as an observer. Hume has his skeptical spokesman Philo pointed out that there may be many worlds, produced by incompetent designers, whom he calls a "stupid mechanic". In the Dialogue on Nature, , Hume writes:
Many of the world may have failed and carelessly throughout eternity, before the system was attacked: many lost workforce: many unsuccessful attempts have been made: and sluggish repairs, but continue to be done for an indefinite period of art making the world.
American philosopher Daniel Dennett has suggested that this teleological mechanical explanation, though "clearly... entertaining philosophical fantasies", anticipates the idea of ​​natural selection, "continuous improvement" like "any Darwin selection algorithm."
Miracles Problem
In his discussion of miracles, Hume argues that we should not believe that miracles have occurred and that they do not give us a reason to think that God exists. In the Investigation Concerning Human Understanding (Section 10), Hume defines miracles as "a violation of natural law with a certain will of the God, or by the interposition of some invisible agent". Hume said that we believe events that are likely to happen are likely to happen again, but we also consider events where the incident did not occur. Hume writes:
A sage [...] considers which side is supported by a large number of experiments [...] One hundred examples or experiments on the one hand, and fifty on the other, giving dubious hope of every event; though a hundred uniform experiments, with only one contradictory, yield enough strong guarantees. In all cases, we must balance the opposite experiment [...] and reduce the smaller number of larger ones, to know the exact strength of the superior proof.
Hume discusses the testimony of those who reported miracles. He writes that testimony may be doubted even from some of the great authorities in the fact that facts themselves can not be trusted. "[T] he evidence, resulting from testimony, recognizes a decrease, greater or less, proportionately because the facts are more or less unusual."
Although Hume opens up the possibility of miracles and is reported, he offers various arguments against this ever occurring in history: He points out that people often lie, and they have good reason to lie about miracles happening either because they believe that do it for their religious interests or because of the resulting fame. Furthermore, people in nature enjoy the miracles they hear without caring for their truth and thus miracles are easily transmitted even in the wrong places. Also, Hume notes that miracles seem to occur primarily in "states and" barbarians and ignorance, and their reason for not happening in a civilized society is that such a society is not fascinated by what they know as natural events. Finally, the miracles of each religion are opposed to all other religions and their miracles, and even if some of the miracles reported throughout the world meet Hume's requirements for belief, the miracles of every religion make others less likely.
Hume is very pleased with his argument against the miracle in the Question . He stated, "I flatter myself, that I have found arguments about the same nature, which, if fair, will, with the wise and learned, become eternal checks for all kinds of superstitious fantasy, and consequently, to be useful as long as the world endures. "Thus, Hume's argument against miracles has a more abstract basis based on research, not just miracles, but from all forms of belief systems. This is the idea of ​​common sense based on epistemological evidence, and founded on the principle of rationality, proportionality, and reasonableness.
The criterion for judging the belief system for Hume is based on a balance of probability whether something is more likely than not to happen. Because the weight of the empirical experience contradicts the idea for the existence of miracles, such a report must be treated with skepticism. Furthermore, many stories of miracles contradict each other, as some who receive miracles will aim to prove the authority of Jesus, while others will aim to prove the authority of Muhammad or some other prophet or religious deity. These different accounts weaken the overall strength of the evidence of miracles.
In spite of all this, Hume observes that belief in miracles is popular, and that "The people who see [...] accept greedily, without examination, anything that soothes superstitions, and promotes miracles."
The critics argue that Hume's position assumes the character of miracles and laws of nature before a specific examination of the miraculous claims, so that it becomes a subtle form of asking the question. To assume that testimony is a homogeneous reference group does not seem prudent - to compare personal miracles with public miracles, non-intellectual observers with intellectual observers and those who have few advantages and many losses with those who have many advantages and few loses are inconclusive to many. Indeed, many argue that miracles not only do not contradict the laws of nature, but require the laws of nature to be understood as miraculous, and thus undermine the laws of nature. For example, William Adams states that "there must be an ordinary path before something can be extraordinary, there must be a flow before something can be disturbed". They also note that it requires appeal to inductive conclusions, since no one observes any part of nature or examines any possible miracle claims, for example in the future. This, in Hume's philosophy, is very problematic.
A little appreciated is the thick literature that symbolizes Hume, like Thomas Sherlock or directly responds to and is involved with Hume-of William Paley, William Adams, John Douglas, John Leland, and George Campbell, among others. From Campbell, it was reported that, after reading Campbell's Dissertation, Hume commented that "the Scotch theologian has beaten him".
Hume's main argument about miracles is that miracles by definition are singular events different from established natural laws. Such natural laws are codified as a result of past experience. Therefore, miracles are a violation of all previous experiences and thus incapable on the basis of this plausible belief. However, the possibility that something has happened contrary to all past experiences must always be judged less than the probability that one of the senses has deceived someone, or the person telling the miraculous event is lying or wrong. Hume would say, everything he'd experienced before. For Hume, the refusal to give this trust does not guarantee the truth. He offers the example of an Indian prince, who, raised in a hot country, refuses to believe that the water has frozen. With Hume's light, this rejection is not wrong and Prince "reasoned fairly"; it is possible only when he has had extensive experience about the water freeze he has to believe that the event could happen.
So for Hume, a magical event would be a recurring event or it would never be rational to believe that it happened. Relation to religious beliefs is left unexplained throughout, except for the closing of discussions in which Hume recorded Christian dependence on the testimony of miraculous occurrences. He made the ironic assertion that anyone who is "driven by faith to receive" to express testimony "is an awakening of the ever-present miracle that undermines all the principles of his understanding, and gives him the determination to believe what is most contradictory to customs and experiences. "Hume writes that" All the testimonies that were ever actually given for any miracle, or that will ever be given, are the subject of scorn. "
As an English historian
From 1754 to 1762 Hume published The History of England, a work of volume 6, which extends, saying the subtitle, "From the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution in 1688". Inspired by Voltaire's feelings about the breadth of history, Hume broadens the focus of the field far from just kings, parliaments, and soldiers, to literature and science as well. He argues that the quest for freedom is the highest standard for judging the past, and concludes that after considerable fluctuations, England at the time of writing has reached "the most comprehensive system of freedom ever known among mankind". This "should be regarded as an important event for the culture.In his day, moreover, it is innovation, soaring above his very few predecessors."
Hume's coverage of the political turmoil of the seventeenth century relies heavily on the Earl of Clarendon The History of Rebellion and the Civil War in England (1646-69). Generally, Hume takes on a moderate royalist position and considers the revolution unnecessary to achieve the necessary reforms. Hume is considered a Tory historian, and emphasizes religious differences more than constitutional problems. Laird Okie explains that "Hume teaches the virtues of political moderation, but... it's moderation with anti-Whig, a pro-royal coloring." To "Hume share... Tory believes that Stuarts is no higher hand than their Tudor predecessors". "Although Hume writes with anti-Whig animus, it is, paradoxically, correct to regard Historical as the founding work, which implicitly supports the ruling oligarchy." Historians debate whether Hume poses a universal and unchanging human nature, or is permitted for evolution and development.
Robert Roth argues that Hume's history presents his bias against the Presbyterian and Puritan. Roth said that his anti-Whig pro-monarchy position diminished the influence of his work, and that his emphasis on politics and religion led to a disregard of social and economic history.
Hume is the early cultural historian of science. Brief biographies of leading scientists are exploring the process of scientific change. He developed new ways to see scientists in the context of their time by looking at how they interact with society and each other. He covers over forty scientists, with special attention to Francis Bacon, Robert Boyle, and Isaac Newton. Hume especially praised William Harvey, writing about his treatise on blood circulation: "Harvey deserves the glory that has been made, on its own grounds, without the mix of accidents, capital discovery in one of the most important branches of science."
The History became a best-seller and made Hume a rich man who no longer had to take salaried jobs for others. That
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