Philosophy
Today marks the 300th birthday of David Hume, almost universally agreed to have been the most important philosopher ever to write in English, and certainly one of my favorites.
It's rather strange (and disheartening, really) that his name hasn't achieved the level of popular recognition that Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Kant have received, but maybe that has something to do with the fact that his ideas challenged many notions that most of us consider sacred (and I'm talking about concepts like causality, induction, substance, and the self... I won't even get started with religious notions, which are really child's play).
Here is just one example of his incredibly sharp thinking (from his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding): in this quote (known as Hume's fork), he summarizes the insight that any alleged piece of knowledge must be able to satisfy one of two basic conditions in order to deserve to be listened to:
And in this one (from his Treatise of Human Nature), he argues that reason cannot work as a cause of action:
- (b) ?plato Does Not Value Experience Enough.? Discuss. (10 Marks)
A time limit of 15 mins was given for this. The key questions are whether Plato does undervalue experience and whether he is correct in assuming this. In one sense Plato appears correct in his assessment that the physical world cannot give us answers...
- ?kant?s Moral Argument Cannot Be Defended.? Discuss.
The claim that Kant?s moral argument cannot be defended is questionable. Freud is someone who would agree with this claim. For Freud our moral awareness comes through a clash between our subconscious desires, instincts or wants (known as the id) and societal...
- Three Minute Philosophy - David Hume
There are many many reasons to like philosophy, but if I had to settle on just one, I would probably have to say that what I love about it is its inherent playful ability to turn the conventional wisdom of our time and what seems intuitively obvious into...
- Anthony Quinton On Spinoza & Leibniz
Once Descartes set the agenda and got modern philosophy started, the greatest thinkers of Europe divided into roughly two camps: the empiricists, like Locke, Berkeley and Hume, who argued that substantive knowledge about the world comes exclusively from...
- David Hume - Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Widely considered to be the most important philosopher ever to write in the English language, the Scottish philosopher David Hume's ideas are as profound, subtle and revolutionary as they are playful, ironic and elusive. Brave and daring to the end,...
Philosophy
Happy Birthday, David Hume!
It's rather strange (and disheartening, really) that his name hasn't achieved the level of popular recognition that Plato, Aristotle, Descartes and Kant have received, but maybe that has something to do with the fact that his ideas challenged many notions that most of us consider sacred (and I'm talking about concepts like causality, induction, substance, and the self... I won't even get started with religious notions, which are really child's play).
Here is just one example of his incredibly sharp thinking (from his Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding): in this quote (known as Hume's fork), he summarizes the insight that any alleged piece of knowledge must be able to satisfy one of two basic conditions in order to deserve to be listened to:
When we run over libraries, persuaded of these principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for instance; let us ask, Does it contain any abstract reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames: For it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion.Good-bye religion!
And in this one (from his Treatise of Human Nature), he argues that reason cannot work as a cause of action:
A passion is an original existence, or, if you will, modification of existence, and contains not any representative quality, which renders it a copy of any other existence or modification. When I am angry, I am actually possest with the passion, and in that emotion have no more a reference to any other object, than when I am thirsty, or sick, or more than five foot high. It is impossible, therefore, that this passion can be opposed by, or be contradictory to truth and reason; since this contradiction consists in the disagreement of ideas, considered as copies, with those objects, which they represent.Good-bye morality as a rational enterprise :)
Cheers to you, bon David!
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- (b) ?plato Does Not Value Experience Enough.? Discuss. (10 Marks)
A time limit of 15 mins was given for this. The key questions are whether Plato does undervalue experience and whether he is correct in assuming this. In one sense Plato appears correct in his assessment that the physical world cannot give us answers...
- ?kant?s Moral Argument Cannot Be Defended.? Discuss.
The claim that Kant?s moral argument cannot be defended is questionable. Freud is someone who would agree with this claim. For Freud our moral awareness comes through a clash between our subconscious desires, instincts or wants (known as the id) and societal...
- Three Minute Philosophy - David Hume
There are many many reasons to like philosophy, but if I had to settle on just one, I would probably have to say that what I love about it is its inherent playful ability to turn the conventional wisdom of our time and what seems intuitively obvious into...
- Anthony Quinton On Spinoza & Leibniz
Once Descartes set the agenda and got modern philosophy started, the greatest thinkers of Europe divided into roughly two camps: the empiricists, like Locke, Berkeley and Hume, who argued that substantive knowledge about the world comes exclusively from...
- David Hume - Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Widely considered to be the most important philosopher ever to write in the English language, the Scottish philosopher David Hume's ideas are as profound, subtle and revolutionary as they are playful, ironic and elusive. Brave and daring to the end,...