My notes on some David Hume readings.
read moreHume says we can’t at all be certain about causation. We don’t really know if one thing caused another. In Hume’s worldview, causation is assumed but ultimately unknowable. We do not know there is a First Cause, or a place for God. On induction: figuring out the future based on the past. Because of his causation views, we also can’t justify inductive reasoning. His two possible justifications which he rejects are: it seems logical the future will resemble the past (but we can just as easily imagine chaos). Second is “we can assume something will continue happening because it has always happened before”. He says this is circular reasoning. He believes the determining role in human behavior is passion, not reason. Based on examples, seemed as though humans often act for reasons other than their best interest. Applied to why things are immoral, too. Hume doesn’t think we can know anything about God, even if he existed. No impression of self. Our lives are actually just discontinuous streams of emotions. No evidence for connecting our experiences. To hume: ideas or thoughts are memories, and impressions are lively perceptions that are vivid. To hume: all complex ideas are a compilation of simple ones. Ideas are limited by perception, so blind man can’t imagine color. He objects to his own saying that he can’ try to imagine the color between two colors he has seen. Should read more if possible: http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/understanding/section3.rhtml