David Hume: Strengths And Weaknesses

Question 1

S: The Idea of God

Answer 1

God is formed from the ideas of all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving, built from the extreme yet simple ideas of love, power, and knowledge. Therefore, God is not innate - a common belief in the 17th century.

Question 2

S: Malfunctioning Ideas

Answer 2

“A blind man can’t form the notion of colours, nor a deaf man the notion of sound” - It’s simple: If you are born with a lack of impression in one sense (hearing), there will be a lack of the corresponding idea (sound). Same applies to why it’s impossible to describe a colour to a blind person.

Question 3

S: Absence of Experiences

Answer 3

“A laplander has no notion of the taste of wine… nor can a selfish one easily conceive… generosity” - Someone who hasn’t experienced a certain emotion or drink won’t be able to know the arised feeling from the emotion, nor the pleasure or disgust recieved from the taste of the drink.

Question 4

W: Instincts

Answer 4

We are born with 5 Instincts: Creativity, hunger, sexuality, fear, and curiosity. These are all things that arise from us without needing to experience them first, which is why it’s known as a ‘natural instinct’. This is an argument against empiricism and for innatism.
Hume’s response: The idea of searching for food would come from the impression of hunger, same with knowing the concept of darkness to gain the fear of darkness. Everything comes from an impression.

Question 5

S: Species Limitations

Answer 5

Some animals can detect forms of energy invisible to us, like magnetic and electrical fields. Others see light and hear sounds well outside the range of human perception. Because we are unable to sense some of the things animals sense, we will never know how it feels to detect them the same way.