Hume Section 2 (Knowledge And Doubt)

Question 1

Why does Hume believe we don’t have any innate ideas?

Answer 1

• Hume is an empiricist, so thinks all ideas are from experience
• explain how Hume explained the concept of God - so called innate ideas could be derived from experience

Question 2

What is an impression?

Answer 2

Impressions are experienced only once and are stronger and more vivid than ideas (this is the only distinction between them)

‘The most lively thought is still dimmer than the dullest sensation’

Question 3

What is outward impressions?

Answer 3

Sensory experience that happens at the time. E.g hot/cold, pain

Question 4

What is inward impressions?

Answer 4

Feelings that happen at the moment. E.g sadness, happy, excited

Question 5

What are ideas?

Answer 5

Memories and copies of impressions. These are less vivid than our impressions.

Question 6

What is a simple idea?

Answer 6

A single quality. Impressions or ideas which cannot be broken down into any separate parts. E.g the colour gold

Question 7

What is a complex idea?

Answer 7

Impressions or ideas which can be broken down further into distinguishable parts. This explains imagination. E.g imagining a gold mountain

Question 8

How are complex ideas made?

Answer 8

By compounding, augmenting, diminishing or transposing simple ideas

Question 9

What does compound mean?

Answer 9

Put together - the imagination takes 2 or more ideas and puts them together to create a new idea

Question 10

What does transpose mean?

Answer 10

Move around - to change the position of a thing a thing. We can create all kinds of weird and wonderful creatures by taking a part of one animal and putting it upon another

Question 11

What does augment mean?

Answer 11

Make bigger - to increase. You can easily imagine a mouse the size of a tall building. Can also mean to magnify a concept or idea or to make bigger by adding to it. Hume talks about how we come up with the complex idea of God, by augmenting qualities we see in humans.

Question 12

What does diminish mean?

Answer 12

To make smaller - you can imagine a tiny elephant.

Question 13

Whag are meaningless concepts?

Answer 13

Ideas which cannot be traced back to an impression. These are not genuine ideas but instead an error.

Question 14

What is empiricism

Answer 14

All knowledge is based on experience

Question 15

What is humes first inductive argument?

Answer 15

Every argument no matter how unusual or complex, can be traced back to component parts which are based on impressions. Humes uses the example of God to explain this and says if anyone disagrees with his proposition all they need to do is think of an idea not attributed to other impressions and it will be up to him to point to the impression that corresponds to the idea they have produced.

Question 16

What is humes 2nd argument about when a relevant impression has been denied?

Answer 16

When a person does not have an impression then they so don’t have the idea. He argues they will lack the corresponding idea as they have not gained the impression to derive the idea from.

Question 17

What 3 examples does Hume use to support his 2nd argument of when a relevant impression has been denied?

Answer 17

A. MALFUNCTIONING SENSES
- a blind man who has never experienced colour has no concept of what colour is. If the sense organs are restored, he will then gain the idea of colour.
B. ABSENCE OF RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
- when someone hasn’t had a specific experience they won’t know what exactly it is like. This goes for both inward and outward impressions. As someone who is kind and gentle can’t form the idea of cruelty and revenge - they find it hard to comprehend.
C. ABSENCE DUE TO SPECIES LIMITATIONS
- other non human animals have senses we don’t and because we don’t have them we do not know what it is like to experience them.

Question 18

What is the missing shade of blue?

Answer 18

This is a counter example to humes 2nd argument.
- imagines a man who has seen every shade of blue except one
- all of the shades of blue are presented to him from light to dark except one.
- hume says the man would be able to create the idea of the missing shade of blue even though he has not previous impression of it.
‘Simple ideas are not always, in every instance, derived from corresponding impressions’ however ‘the example is so singular that it is hardly worth noticing’ so we shouldn’t discard the general rule.

Question 19

What is the philosophical application of the copy principle?

Answer 19

Hume argues that alot of philosophy is dominated with nonsensical jargon because abstract ideas are obscure meaning its hard for the mind to fully grasp them, it’s easy to confuse one idea with other similar ideas and people naturally believe that if we have used a word a lot then it must have a specific meaning within it.

Hume hopes his principle will help avoid these problems in the future because impressions are naturally vivid and strong, making them easily distinguished.

Whenever we come across an idea we think is meaningless we should try to work out what impression the idea has been drawn from. If we can’t find an idea we should discard the idea as wrong.

Question 20

Challenges of humes inductive argument?

Answer 20

• Humes claim that blind people have no notion of colour is impossible to verify. How are we suppose to know what a blind person experiences?Perhaps they experience colour through touch or other sensory experience.
• Hume implys that ideas are images which fade over time. However, it is debatable whether an idea is an image, we can have ideas with no corresponding imagery. Ideas like ‘justice’ do not have a clear direct impression. It’d be hard to argue that the idea of justice is meaningless as there is great debate surrounding the issue. Hume could argue justice is a complex idea, however, he would have to establish the simple ideas it is built upon.
• a rationalist could argue that concepts like ‘justice’ are innate with us. Hume may argue that experiencing injustice or justice being executed has formed that idea within us.

Question 21

Issues with impressions being less vivid than ideas

Answer 21

• Dreams/nightmares can be more vivid than the impression of being in bed asleep. They can seem as vivid as real experiences, leaving us questioning if that was a dream or something which really happened.
• Hume would likely want us to rid any knowledge if there is doubt about if it is real and we really experienced it as he is an empiricist.