Hume Flashcards
Hume’s notion of what counts as a perception.
Hume has two kind of perceptions:
On one side there are ideas and thoughts, and on the other side there are impressions.
Their difference is in how forceful they are. If you stick your hand in fire then you get the impression of burn. If you only think of being burned by fire you only have a thought. The first one is more forceful because you would move your hand away in a way that you would not do if you would just think about it.
So your behavior is much more reactive to impressions than to ideas and thoughts.
Hume’s interest
Hume is interested in how our ideas are connected. Specifically: how we connect our ideas in terms of cause and effect. So Causal Reasoning rather than in cause and effect as metaphysical thing in the world.
Hume’s fork: that is, the definitions of what are Relations of Ideas and what are Matters of Fact.
Relations of Ideas are things that do not accept of contradictions. So 2+2=4. They are things that can be discovered only by thinking. A priori.
Matters of fact: They do accept of contradictions. I am wearing a white shirt but I COULD have been wearing a black shirt. They are discoverable through observation and can’t be discovered purely by thinking. You would have to see me wearing a white shirt of would have heard someone telling you.
The 2 arguments for thinking causal reasoning does not pertain to Relations of Ideas.
1: Humes argument is that we do not learn about causation by just THINKING about the world.
Adam in paradise would not know would cause us to be wet or if you get emerged in it you can drown. You would only know it from experiencing water.
- Just thinking about an event will not tell you about what effects it will have (or what caused it).
The 2 arguments for thinking causal reasoning does not pertain to Matters of Fact.
1: You don’t learn about causal reasoning from just looking at things. You don’t see causation happening, rather you see two events happening after each other. Looking of bread will not allow you to see its causal powers to still your hunger.
2: You do not know it form experience as you would have to already know about cause and effect.
You eat a bread and you are not hungry anymore. Don’t we learn about causation by just thinking of our past experience. So in the past we ate bread and that stilled our hunger so we think in the future it will do so too: that’s knowing through experience.
This is a circular argument: the only way you could conclude the bread would still your hunger is if you would already know that causation existed. So To learn about causal reasoning we would need to already know about cause and effect.
Hume’s explanation of causal reasoning in terms of habits.
Hume argues that causal reasoning neither belongs to matters of fact or relations of ideas. This means that causal reasoning lacks justification. How do we come to know it? It’s something we habitually do, so not from reasoning.
After seeing it a 100x, Eve will recognise a connection between movement of white ball and of the colourful ones. She can’t help but make this connection! It becomes a custom or a habit to do so.
