Humes Challeges To The Arguments From Observation Flashcards
How does Hume challenge the idea of infinite regression being impossible?
- There’s a difference between not being able to comprehend something and it not existing
- Just as religious believers understand that god is difficult to comprehend yet do not reject him , the same applies to I infinite regress
3.experience with numbers suggests it is plausible
What is the main counter to Hume”s views on infinite regression?
Infinite regression is impossible to verify - this poses a greater challenge as hume was an empiricist
How does Hume challenge the idea that the universe has a cause ?
1.confuse causation with correlation
2. Fallacy of composition example of twenty particles
3. Inductive leap-applying experience of something to something else we haven’t had experience of
How does Hume demonstrate the challenge of confusing causation with correlation ?
Hume argues that although every husband must be a man , this does not mean every man is married
What is Humes 20 particle example?
Used to demonstrate the fallacy of composition - just because we can state the cause of a single atom does not mean that we can explain the cause of the 20 atoms as a whole
What is Hume’s challenge to the view that God is necessary?
He challenges that God is the special case and asks what is the cause of God,he wonders if the universe can be its own cause as there is nothing like the universe in existence , why can’t it be the special case ?
How does Hume challenge the assumption aquinas makes of it being the God of Classical Theism?
Accuses Aquinas of making a logical leap to the GOCT , even if we accept that the universe has a cause this doesn’t have to be the GOCT e.g it could be a deistic God, a committee of Gods or an infant deity
How can we challenge Hume’s criticism of the logical leap to the GOCT?
We need to make a leap of faith to understand God , as God is beyond human logic we need a leap of faith
How can we challenge Humes view on their being a difference between not understanding something and it existing?
Hume comity’s the same fallacy with God as just because through human logic we cannot comprehend God does not mean he simply does not exist
How does Hume criticise the comparison of the world to a watch ?
1.the world does not resemble a machine
2. We determine the result of our argument by comparing something natural to something unnatural
3. The world resembles more of an animal or a watch
What is Hume’s trial and error argument?
For a fair comparison , the watch is likely to have undergone trail and error therefore the world must have aswell, there are also multiple individuals involved in making a watch , which doesn’t fit with omnipotence
Why does Hume suggest we can not make any certain judgments of how the world was made ?
We have no experience with world making and have nothing to compare our inverse to
What is Humes balancing scales example?
We can only see effects and not the cause , if we had a scale and could only see one side we can not conclusively infer the weight on the other side
How does Hume use the epicurean hypothesis?
To suggest that order can come from chaos giving the illusion of desighn
