Essay On David Hume

1471 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: David Hume: essays

David Hume
David Hume was a philosopher and historian who born in Edinburgh in 1711-1776. David Hume made great impact around the time he was living. According to Matthews & Platt (2008) “from 1763-1766, David Hume served at the British embassy in Paris, where he was honored by the French philosophies. He later returned to Edinburgh, where he was the leader of the Scottish Enlightenment” (p. 502). Therefore David Hume first developed his philosophy with a discussion about human nature around 1739-1740 (Matthews & Platt, 2008), which he took with him throughout his life.
According to Matthews & Platt (2008) they have stated that “David Hume begins in the critical spirit of Age of Reason and ends up advocating skepticism” (p. 502). However he followed the method of an English thinker John Locke, who believes that all ideas in the mind are first in the senses. Therefore he denies the existence of the mind, stating that is a “grab-bag” of mental images (Matthews & Platt, 2008).
However David Hume reaches his own conclusion by breaking down “ideas” into; sense impressions and mental images formed as a result of these impressions (Matthews & Platt, 2008). Therefore he believes that two worlds exits; the subjective world which can known and work with but contains no guarantee of its objective truth, and the external world which is perceived if at all, through a screen of ideas (Matthews & Platt, 2008). Thus he also links his method to “causality” which is the idea that one event in the world causes another. According to Matthews & Platt (2008) Hume stated that “cause and effect is not communicated to the mind through the senses” (p. 502). It was also know that David Hume was also controversial for his religious views and beliefs (Ma...

... middle of paper ...

...ld appear and exist in China. While the reality is that I am still sitting in my room. Your mind will tell you all kinds of things but you as an individual must be able to pick out the ones that suit you and not rely on the fact that ‘I think, therefore I am’.
Rene Descartes has influenced psychology now in this present state, because he helps you to look at the history of the different philosopher at a wider angle. Wanting to understand the history for your own self and come up with your own conclusion.

Conclusion
In concluding the impact of the great philosophers David Hume, Immanuel Kant, William James and Rene Descartes has greatly impacted the History of Psychology around their existence and currently to the present state of psychology. They were men of great thinkers who without a doubt have surely impacted people of their time and of this generation.

Show More
Related

  • An Analysis of David Hume's Affirmation

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    Before Hume commits himself to this affirmation, he establishes several things first. He explains that all reasonings concerning matter of fact are founded on the relation of Cause and Effect. In support of this, Hume explains that, if asked, any man believing in a matter of fact would give as a reason in support of this fact, some other fact. It is from this that Hume concludes that all reasonings concerning fact are of the same nature. It is here that one continually assumes that there is a connection between the current fact and that, which is inferred from it. Furthermore, Hume states where there nothing to bind them together; the inference would be entirely precarious.

    Read More

  • Psychological Continuity Theory: The Persistence Of A Personal Identity

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    His claim is that the mind is merely a bundle of perceptions that derive ultimately from sensory inputs or impressions. He follows on to say that ideas are reflections of these perceptions, or to be more precise, perceptions of perceptions, therefore can still be traced back to an original sensory input. Hume applied this logic to the perception of a ‘self’, to which he could not trace back to any sensory input, the result was paradoxical, thus he concluded that “there is no simplicity in (the mind) at one time, nor identity in different; whatever natural propension we might have to imagine that simplicity and

    Read More

  • Hume's Views on Kant's Concept of God

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    For Hume, all objects of human reason are divided into two kinds: Relations of Ideas and Matters of fact. All reasoning of matters of fact are founded on Cause and Effect. Cause and Effect play a big role in Hume's philosophy. David Hume is a man of logic, who believes in experience over knowledge. This is the main in idea in his philosophy.

    Read More

  • David Hume's Empiricism

    1115 Words  | 3 Pages

    Man takes note of the consequences his actions have, and form his habits accordingly. Impressions are more lively and forcible due to experiencing an action, while ides/thoughts are less forcible and less lively because they are only reflections and only thinking of an action. Hume explains this in, “Impression, then, I mean all our more lively perceptions…Love, or hate, see, or feel...and impressions are distinguished from ideas, which are the less lively perceptions.” Hume also explains in the next quote explains that impressions or sense are superior to ideas alone, “…all our ideas or more feeble perceptions are copies of our impressions or more lively ones…first, when we analyze our thoughts or ideas… they resolve themselves into such simple ideas as were copied from a precedent feeling or sentiment.”

    Read More

  • Analysis Of David Hume On Morality

    1059 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hume makes the claim that in order to make a moral judgment, one must keep in mind all the relevant aspects the situation, and recognize all the relevant ideas in relation to the situation. This means that we must take into consideration reason. Nevertheless, The moral judgment itself is not possible without passions or sentiment, which ultimately takes in all the deliverances of reason and creates the sentiment of disapproval or approval.

    Read More

  • The Transforming Life of Sigmund Freud

    3832 Words  | 8 Pages

    The purpose of this paper is to evaluate a psychologist and analyze how their theories impact society in general. Sigmund Freud, one of the most recognized names in psychology to date, had developed some eccentric theories that many scientists still accept as having some factual basis. His theories on hypnotherapy, psychosexual development, and defense mechanisms gives people the ability to control and predict their future behavior. These theories, being recognized as some of the most remarkable and influential, have transformed a generation of free thinkers and scientists. His ideas have paved the way to what is now universally known as the field of psychology.

    Read More

  • David Hume: Compatibilism And Hume

    1937 Words  | 4 Pages

    Megan Darnley PHIL-283 May 5, 2014 Compatibilism and Hume. The choices an individual makes are often believed to be by their own doing; there is nothing forcing one action to be done in lieu of another, and the responsibility of one’s actions is on him alone. This idea of Free Will, supported by libertarians and is the belief one is entirely responsible for their own actions, is challenged by necessity, otherwise known as determinism. Those championing determinism argue every action and event is because of some prior cause.

    Read More

  • Reason: David Hume, Kant And Reason

    1433 Words  | 3 Pages

    David Hume is was a strong advocator and practitioner of a scientific and empirical way of thinking which is reflected in his philosophy. His skeptical philosophy was a 180 degree shift from the popular rational philosophy of the time period. Hume attempted to understand “human nature” through our psychological behaviors and patterns which, when analyzing Hume’s work, one can clearly see its relation to modern day psychology. Hume was a believer in that human behavior was influenced not by reason but by desire. He believed that “Ambition, avarice, self-love, vanity, friendship, generosity, public spirit—these passions, mixed in various proportions and distributed throughout society, are now (and from the beginning of the world always have been) the source of all the actions and projects that have ever...

    Read More

  • Monism vs Dualism

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rene Descartes certainly didn't lack for credentials. As the "Father of Rationalism," "Father of Modern Philosophy," and originator of Cartesian geometry, he had more than enough interests to fill his spare time. But his role as "Father of Skepticism" helped popularize a major change in thinking about the nature of human experience. Dualism, or the doctrine that mind and body are of two distinct natures, is one of the key philosophical problems inherited by psychology. In both philosophy and psychology there have been several attempts to reconcile the mind and body.

    Read More

  • Cause and Effect in David Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    In An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume states, “there is not, in any single, particular instance of cause and effect, any thing which can suggest the idea of power or necessary connexion” (Hume, 1993: 41). Hume establishes in section II that all ideas originate from impressions that employ the senses (11). Therefore, in order for there to be an idea of power or “necessary connexion,” there must be impressions of this connection present in single instances of cause and effect; if there are no such impressions, then there cannot be an idea of “necessary connexion” (52). To illustrate his statement, Hume examines four situations: bodies interacting in the world, mind causing actions of the body, mind causing ideas of ideas, and God as the source of power. I will highlight Hume’s reasons and outline his arguments to establish that there is no “connexion” between cause and effect on the basis of single instances.

    Read More

  • Hume Vs Kant

    1749 Words  | 4 Pages

    Hume began his first examination if the mind by classifying its contents as Perceptions. “Here therefore [he divided] all the perceptions of the mind into two classes or species.” (27) First, Impressions represented an image of something that portrayed an immediate relationship. Secondly, there were thoughts and ideas, which constituted the less vivid impressions. For example, the recalling of a memory. From this distinction, Hume decreed that all ideas had origin within impressions.

    Read More

  • David Hume’s Two Definitions of Cause

    3277 Words  | 7 Pages

    David Hume’s two definitions of cause found in both A Treatise of Human Nature, and An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding have been the center of much controversy in regards to his actual view of causation. Much of the debate centers on the lack of consistency between the two definitions and also with the definitions as a part of the greater text. As for the latter objection, much of the inconsistency can be remedied by sticking to the account presented in the Enquiry, as Hume makes explicit in the Author’s Advertisement that the Treatise was a “work which the Author [Hume] had projected before he left College, and which he wrote and published not long after. But not finding it successful, he was sensible of his error in going to the press to early, and he cast the whole anew in the following pieces, where some negligence in his former reasoning and more in the expression, are, he hopes, corrected.” (Hume 1772, xxxi) Generally the inconsistencies are cited from the Treatise, which fails to recognize the purpose of the Enquiry. This brings us to the possible tension between the two definitions. J.A. Robinson, for example, believes the two definitions cannot refer to the same thing. Don Garrett feels that the two definitions are possible, but only with further interpretation. I will argue that the tension arises from a possible forgetfulness on the part of the reader about Hume’s aims as a philosopher, and that Hume’s Enquiry stands on its own without any need for a critic’s extrapolations. To understand Hume’s interpretation of causation and the arguments against it, we must first follow the steps Hume took to come to his conclusion. This requires brief consideration of Hume’s copy princi...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Freud And Bandura

    871 Words  | 2 Pages

    To begin, one of the most famous and influential thinkers from the last century is known as Sigmund Freud and he is also the father of Psychoanalytic Theory. He has comes to believe that our behavior is influenced by our thoughts and motivation outside of our consciousness. All that we experience during our

    Read More

  • Age of reason

    1290 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Age of Reason was a period in time during the 18th century in Europe and America when man become enlightened by reason, science, and humanity. The people involved with the Age of Reason were convinced that human reason could discover the natural laws of the universe, the natural rights of mankind, and the progress in knowledge. Each philosopher had his own ideas and theories about the world, nature, and human beings in general, and every philosopher wrote many essays and books about their own personal ideas and opinions (Sartre4). David Hume was born in Edinburgh, Scotland on May 7, 1711. Educated at home and then at the University of Edinburgh; here he studies law but then decides to pursue an independent study of his own ideas (Sartre 132).

    Read More

  • David Hume's Theory of Knowledge

    1350 Words  | 3 Pages

    David Hume, following this line of thinking, begins by distinguishing the contents of human experience (which is ultimately reducible to perceptions) into: a) impressions and b) ideas.

    Read More

More about Essay On David Hume

Open Document