Hume Slides

Question 1

Is Hume an empiricist or a rationalist?

Answer 1

empiricist

Question 2

Hume’s religious background

Answer 2

He was raised a strict calvinist but later opposed to organized religion

Question 3

What kind of figure was Hume

Answer 3

a scottish enlightenment figure

Question 4

Hume’s philosophy in a nutshell

Answer 4

• Rigorous empiricism
• Skepticism
• Atheism

Question 5

Two types of perceptions

Answer 5

thoughts/ideas and impressions

Question 6

Thoughts/ideas

Answer 6

Less lively
(Ex: The thought of a “chair,” or “country,” or “duty”)

Question 7

Impressions

Answer 7

More lively
(Ex: hearing, seeing, feeling, loving, hating, desiring)

Question 8

What thoughts can we have?

Answer 8

Anything we can put together from our basic Impressions. As long as it is not a self-contradiction.
(Ex: a “square circle” or a “married bachelor”)

Question 9

What thoughts can we have (examples)

Answer 9

An apple
the economy
golden mountain
a virtuous horse

Question 10

What does Hume think about innate ideas

Answer 10

he thinks innate ideas dont exist but that doesn’t mean that we’re free. It means we’re in flux.

Question 11

Does Hume believe in God? Why?

Answer 11

He says God doesn’t exist because we can’t perceive God (taste him, touch him, hear him, see him, etc.)

Question 12

What does Hume say about god?

Answer 12

“God” is just another complex thought we put together (not innate)

“[the] idea of God, as meaning an infinitely intelligent, wise, and good Being, arises from reflecting on the operations of our own mind, and augmenting, without limit, those qualities of goodness and wisdom”

This is like the painters analogy

Question 13

Two sorts of “objects of human reason” (two classes of things we can think about)

Answer 13

Relation of ideas and matters of fact

Question 14

Relation of ideas

Answer 14

Ex: Geometry, Definitions

Contrary implies a contradiction

They’re certain/necessary but don’t say anything about reality. It says something about definitions.

Ex: A square has four sides. This is a relation of idea because a square without four sides isn’t a square.

Question 15

Matters of fact

Answer 15

Ex: The sun will not rise tomorrow

Contrary is NOT a contradiction

They say things about the world

Question 16

Everything we know about the real world is a ______

Answer 16

“matter of fact”

Question 17

Matters of fact are never _____

Answer 17

never necessary

Question 18

Each property of an existing thing is known _______

Answer 18

a posteriori (i.e., individually, through sense experience)

Question 19

Quote that Frim kept repeating in class

Answer 19

“all that is distinct is separable“ (no necessary connections)

Question 20

Why is “all that is distinct is separable“

Answer 20

because our senses are separate from each other. Each sense experience is a thing of its own (separate)

Question 21

How does Hume use Adam to explain “all that is distinct is separable”

Answer 21

“Adam, though his rational faculties be supposed… could not have inferred from the fluidity and transparency of water that it would suffocate him, or from the light and warmth of fire that it would consume him.”

Because every sense is its own thing, there is no connection between water being clear/fluid and the act of drowning.

Question 22

All that is distinct is separable Ex: The “Molyneaux Problem” (as presented to Locke)

Answer 22

A blind person touches a sphere and cube every day. They get their vision back one day and they can’t tell which is cube and which is sphere just by looking at it.

Question 23

Skepticism of the mind

Answer 23

You never experience the mind. The mind is just a bunch of perceptions put together (bundle theory).

Question 24

Skepticism of causality

Answer 24

We never experience causality. Only Event 1 followed by Event 2.

“Motion in the second Billiard-ball is quite distinct even from motion in the first: nor is there anything in the one to suggest the smallest hint of the other.”

Question 25

Skepticism of natural laws

Answer 25

Math (a priori reasoning) can’t discover these. Must be discovered through experience (a posteriori). Only THEN can we do math about it.

Math is never necessary or certain; May change.

Question 25

skepticism of induction

Answer 25

“…all our experimental conclusions proceed upon the supposition that the future will be conformable to the past.”

But we have no basis to say this. There is no reason to suppose that the future will conform to the past

Question 26

Because of the problem of induction, what else does Hume reject?

Answer 26

• Uniformity of Nature (unobservable)
• Principle of Sufficient Reason (unobservable)

Question 27

The exact same ____ may (one day) have a totally different _____.

Answer 27

The exact same CAUSE may (one day) have a totally different
EFFECT!

Question 28

We seem to live in a lawful universe, seem to do science, and seem to make predictions. What does Hume say to this?

Answer 28

“Be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.”

Question 29

What does Hume think about morality?

Answer 29

Skepticism of morality. Moral truths are feelings. We have the feeling first then we do stuff to cover up our passion and make it seem reasonable.