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David Hume (1711-1776) “ The Wrecking Ball ”

David Hume (1711-1776) “ The Wrecking Ball ”. Hume ’ s Work. A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-49) An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748). In Context…. The Enlightenment (late17th-late 18 th Century) REASON The significance of Newton. Empiricism.

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David Hume (1711-1776) “ The Wrecking Ball ”

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  1. David Hume (1711-1776)“The Wrecking Ball”

  2. Hume’s Work • A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-49) • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

  3. In Context… • The Enlightenment (late17th-late 18th Century) • REASON • The significance of Newton

  4. Empiricism • Regards observation as the only reliable source of knowledge • Sense perception is the only reliable method for gaining knowledge and for testing claims to knowledge

  5. British Empiricism • Francis Bacon (1561-1626) • John Locke (1632-1704) • “Tabula Rasa” • George Berkeley (1685-1754) Characteristics • Anti-Cartesian • NOT metaphysical • Purely epistemological • Two questions: • How do you know? • What are the limits of knowledge?

  6. Hume: “WE HAVE NO KNOWLEDGE” • We only have PERCEPTIONS (beliefs which we feel are true) • IMPRESSIONS: immediate sensations • Simple and complex • IDEAS: copies of impressions • Simple and complex • No impression = No idea

  7. All we know are properties • We don’t know that an apple exists; we just know its properties • Round • Red • Tasty • Try to imagine something that has no properties • YOU CAN’T! • We can’t know objects, only their properies • This is called Bundle Theory

  8. The Problem with Causality • We can never know cause • We can only know custom or habit

  9. Hume’s Conclusions • Reason can never discover the nature, purpose, or plan of the world. • We have no knowledge of the material world. • We can never know causes and effects in the material world. • Metaphysics is a pointless pursuit

  10. Hume introduces Phenomenalism • The view that we have no rational knowledge beyond what is disclosed in the phenomena of perceptions. Mind is therefore a merely a collection of perceptions.

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