David Hume:

Key ideas:

Relations of ideas - Analytical necessary truths, which cannot be disputed

Matters of Fact - Synthetic contingent truths. From what we observe, we can’t be sure what we observe is true. a posteriori.

Cause and Effect - No causation, can’t be sure A leads to B in all situations. Eg: When we see one ball hit a second ball and the second ball moves, we can’t be sure the first ball caused the second ball to move. Experience as the basis of our knowledge of cause and effect, links to induction

Induction: Induction cannot be trusted because it relies upon the assumption that the past will repeat itself

Problem Of Induction: Belief that past experience will be repeated in the future. We cannot be sure this will always happen

Most important: focus on matters of fact, empiricism, based on observations in the past we can make predictions of the future, induction Hume identified problem of induction

Key Quotes:

Part 1:

"All reasonings concerning matter of fact seem to be founded on the relation of cause and effect"
" No object ever discovers, by the qualities which appear to the senses, either the causes which produced it, or the effects which will arise from it"
"Causes and effects are not discoverable, not by reason but by experience"
"All the laws of nature, and all the operations of bodies without exception, are known only by experience"
"For the effect is totally different from the cause and consequently can never be discovered in it"
"All our reasonings á priori will never be able to show us any foundation for this preference"
"Every affect is a distinct event from its cause"
"It is confessed that the utmost of human reason is to reduce the principles......to a greater simplicity"
"But as to the causes of these general causes, we should in vain attempt their discovery"

Part 2:

"What is the nature of all our reasonings concerning matter of fact?"
"They are founded on the relation of cause and effect"
"Nature has kept us at great distance to all her secrets"
"As to past experience, it can be allowed to give direct and certain information of those precise objects only"
"It must be acknowledged , that there is here a consequence drawn by the mind, that there is a certain step taken, a process of thought and an inference which wants to be explained"
"All the arguments concerning existence are founded on the relation of cause and effect"
"All our experimental conclusions proceed upon the supposition that the future will be conformable to the past"
"We are induced to expect effects similar to those, which we have found to follow from such objects"
"It is impossible therefore, that any arguments from experience can prove this resemblance of the past to the future; since all these arguments are founded on the supposition of that resemblance"
"Their secret nature, and consequently, all their effects and influence, may change, without any change in their sensible qualities"

	Created by Winbaj08 about 12 years ago

VCE Philosophy (Knowledge, belief and science: Hume, Popper, Khun) Note on David Hume, created by Winbaj08 on 02/09/2013.