David Hume Research Paper
Stephen Havrilla
Dr. Hogan
Exam 2 Essay #4
11/2/2016
Hume
David Hume was a Scottish born philosopher and is known for his philosophical skepticism and empiricism. In the late seventeen-thirties (1738-1740), David Hume published a book titled, A Treatise of Human Nature, which was comprised of three books. The three sections of the A Treatise of Human Nature include an investigation on human understanding, a discussion on passions, and an explanation of morals. The purpose of this essay is to describe David Hume’s stance on human understanding, define passions and reason, and explain Hume’s theory of moral sense.
In Book 1, Of the Understanding, Hume begins with arguing the importance of empiricism for that the basis of all knowledge is based …show more content…
The simpler ideas are formed by the impressions that form after one perceives an experience through their senses. Ideas must proceed from impressions because, what never was seen or heard of, may yet be conceived. All knowledge that we know as humans has had to been experienced or in other words perceived through our senses in order for humans to have a true understanding on an idea. This belief shows that there is no fundamental difference between an idea and an experience. Following his claim on experience, Hume goes on to define the term “matters of fact”. “Matters of fact” are matters that must be experienced and cannot be found through reasoning or known instinctively. This is one of Hume’s biggest arguments that he makes in his defense that there in fact is no creator. Hume’s atheistic stance is based off the fact that all knowledge is acquired through the experiences that our senses have perceived. His argument is that no one has ever had any perceived experience involving god, so without any perceived experience of the …show more content…
Hume’s point here is that reason may never alone be the motivation for human actions for that passion is the sole motivation that drives action whether it be desire, love, fear, or pride. Alone reason may never provide a motive for action; although reason is slave to passion its influence on human action is not irrelevant. Reason is used when we arrange facts and relations and without reason it would be impossible to come to the final moral judgment that we come to. Among the relations and facts that reason is responsible for arranging, are the moral judgements that humans ourselves make. Reason can be looked at as the track on which the train of human action is running, while passions are the engine which powers the train. Without passions, we go nowhere. Although Hume numerously makes his stance on how reason alone can never be the motivation for an action, he does not deny reason’s influence in the process of making moral
Dr. Hogan
Exam 2 Essay #4
11/2/2016
Hume
David Hume was a Scottish born philosopher and is known for his philosophical skepticism and empiricism. In the late seventeen-thirties (1738-1740), David Hume published a book titled, A Treatise of Human Nature, which was comprised of three books. The three sections of the A Treatise of Human Nature include an investigation on human understanding, a discussion on passions, and an explanation of morals. The purpose of this essay is to describe David Hume’s stance on human understanding, define passions and reason, and explain Hume’s theory of moral sense.
In Book 1, Of the Understanding, Hume begins with arguing the importance of empiricism for that the basis of all knowledge is based …show more content…
The simpler ideas are formed by the impressions that form after one perceives an experience through their senses. Ideas must proceed from impressions because, what never was seen or heard of, may yet be conceived. All knowledge that we know as humans has had to been experienced or in other words perceived through our senses in order for humans to have a true understanding on an idea. This belief shows that there is no fundamental difference between an idea and an experience. Following his claim on experience, Hume goes on to define the term “matters of fact”. “Matters of fact” are matters that must be experienced and cannot be found through reasoning or known instinctively. This is one of Hume’s biggest arguments that he makes in his defense that there in fact is no creator. Hume’s atheistic stance is based off the fact that all knowledge is acquired through the experiences that our senses have perceived. His argument is that no one has ever had any perceived experience involving god, so without any perceived experience of the …show more content…
Hume’s point here is that reason may never alone be the motivation for human actions for that passion is the sole motivation that drives action whether it be desire, love, fear, or pride. Alone reason may never provide a motive for action; although reason is slave to passion its influence on human action is not irrelevant. Reason is used when we arrange facts and relations and without reason it would be impossible to come to the final moral judgment that we come to. Among the relations and facts that reason is responsible for arranging, are the moral judgements that humans ourselves make. Reason can be looked at as the track on which the train of human action is running, while passions are the engine which powers the train. Without passions, we go nowhere. Although Hume numerously makes his stance on how reason alone can never be the motivation for an action, he does not deny reason’s influence in the process of making moral