Hume and Kant's Challenges Flashcards
Which philosophers are involved?
4
David Hume
Bertrand Russel
Immanuel Kant
William of Ockham
What are David Hume’s arguments?
The Inductive Leap and the Fallacy of Composition
What does Hume’s Inductive Leap argument say?
Although the premises put forwards by Aquinas and Craig are acceptable, Hume says that the final one of God as Prime Mover is an assertion based on an assumption and therefore an inductive leap.
What is an inductive leap?
The stretch of imagination that draws a reasonable inference from the available information.
What phrase is Hume credited with?
“an assertion based on an assumption”
What does Hume’s inductive leap argument state about cause/movement/contingency?
That just because things seem caused/changing/contingent, it does not mean that the universe is as well. We did not experience it and therefore cannot conclude this is the case.
What does Hume say the Cosmological argument commits? Explain this
A fallacy of composition. It assumes things are true based on a whole rather than considering individual circumstances.
Give an example of a fallacy of composition.
Hydrogen is not wet. Oxygen is not wet. Therefore water (H2O) is not wet.
How is Bertrand Russel involved in Kant’s argument?
He backed up Hume’s claims of fallacy of composition and inductive leap. Created analogy of the mother and child, “every man existing has a mother, and it seems the argument is saying the human race must therefore have a mother, but the human race hasn’t a mother”.
What quote does Kant say about knowledge and faith?
“We should deny knowledge in order to make room for faith”
What are Kant’s 2 arguments?
(1) Sense experience
(2) Spatio-temporal issues
What is Kant’s sense experience issue?
Argument is not as a posteriori as it claims to be; Aquinas bases his theory on experience of inside the universe, but it talking about the cause of the universe, something we have NOT experienced, therefore cannot be an a posteriori argument.
What is Kant’s spatio-temporal issue?
- Said that something existing OUTSIDE of space and time (as Aquinas concluded God did in his argument) cannot possibly control something INSIDE of space and time, as this is illogical.
