David Hume

1
David Hume
Beauty in things exists in the mind which
contemplates them.
("ThinkExist.com")

• By Lyla Kolman

2
Stats

• British Empiricist
• Believed that the only true knowledge was gained
  by experience, sometimes just by the senses.
  (Free Dictionary)
• Influential during his lifetime
• Historian, essayist, worked minor jobs for the
  English government (Morris)
• Influenced by John Locke, Aristotle. (Schenk)

3
Life Story

• Born in Edinburgh in 1711
• Accompanied his older brother to Edinburgh
  University at age 12
• Wished to be a scholar
• 1734 1742, published A treatise of Human Nature
  and Essays, Moral and Political, both moderately
  successful.
• Worked as Librarian to the Edinburgh Faculty of
  Advocates while very successful but ridiculously
  long History of England.
• Known as an atheist and skeptic after writings
  claiming religion and scientific fact were merely
  theories of the human mind. His publisher was
  even threatened when he attempted to publish The
  Natural History of Religion and A Dissertation to
  the Passions.
• Worked briefly for the English government in
  France, returned to England to be the
  Under-Secretary of State in Englad, then finally
  returned to Edinburgh.
• Died of intestinal cancer in 1776.
• Dialogues concerning Natural Religon, his most
  controversial work, was published after his
  death.

(Morris)
4
Comparison to Platos Theory

• Plato believed in two types of knowledge
• 1 Knowledge gathered from sense perception
• 2 Knowledge gathered from reasoning
• Divided Line theory subject matter divided into
  things that can be known by sense perception, and
  then things that can be known only in the mind.
  These are further subdivided to create four
  areas, a line divided into four imagination,
  real-world knowledge, scientific/logical
  knowledge, wisdom.
• (Uebersax)

• Hume believed in only one kind of knowledge
  knowledge gathered by sense perception.
• He believed not everything could be known, that
  humans were limited to only what our senses could
  perceive, and so truly explaining our reason for
  existence or the exact qualities of worldy
  objects is impossible.
• (Lavine, 1984)

5
Theory of Sense Perception
Two Kinds of Perception

• 2) Ideas the recollection or memories of
  impressions, described by Hume as copies or
  faint images of impressions.
• Simple a memory of a simple impression,
  corresponds accurately
• Complex a memory of a simple impression,
  corresponds less accurately.
• Imagination made up of many simple impressions
  to create a complex idea.

• 1) Impressions the immediate reaction or
  emotional response to something, such as passion,
  the five senses, etc. More powerful, since it is
  the original experience.
• Simple one or few impressions experience
  simultaneously
• Complex many impressions experienced
  simultaneously

• Hume believed nothing could be known without a
  prior impression of it, only a sensory experience
  can prove that something exists.

(Lavine, 1984)
6
Perception Related to Experience

• Hume stated that experience consisted of many
  atomic elements with an impression or idea
  constituting every atom.
• Theory influenced by similar theories of John
  Locke and other previous empiricists.
• Hume believed that an inner force creates simple
  ideas to form complex ones, and so create
  thoughts and theories. To explain this, he
  developed the three laws of the association of
  ideas.

(Lavine, 1984)
7
The Laws of Association
3

• Resemblance between two ideas causes an
  association.
• Contiguity between two ideas causes an
  association.
• Cause and effect of something create an
  association between both ideas.
• Most powerful connections, only way to deduce
  facts without directly experiencing them

(Lavine, 1984)
8
Implications of Theory
Sense perception consists only of our direct
experiences and our reflection on those
experiences.

• Knowledge can only be gathered from sense
  perception.

so...
so...
We can only know what we have directly sensed, or
can theorize by cause and effect. This means
religious and scientific knowledge are only
associations of ideas born in the psychology of
the human mind.
9
Bibliography

• Fieser, James. "HumeA Moral Theory." Internet
  Enyclopedia of Philosophy. N.p., 5 Jul 2005. Web.
  10 Feb 2011. lthttp//www.iep.utm.edu/home/about/gt.
  
• Lavine , T.Z. (1984). From socrates to sarte the
  philosophic quest. New York Bantam Books.
• Lavine , T.Z. (1984). From socrates to sarte the
  philosophic quest. New York Bantam Books.
• Schenk, Ken. "Famous Empiricists." Quadrilateral
  Thoughts. Blogger.com, 29 Jul 2008. Web. 15 Feb
  2011. lthttp//kenschenck.blogspot.com/2008/07/famo
  us-empiricists.htmlgt.
• Morris, William Edward, "David Hume", The
  Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2010
  Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.),
  lthttp//plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2010/entri
  es/hume/gt.
• Uebersax, John S. "Plato's Divided Line Analogy."
  Works on Psychology and Religion. N.p., 05 Mar
  2008. Web. 15 Feb 2011. lthttp//www.john-uebersax.
  com/plato/plato1.htmgt.
• "David Hume Quotes." ThinkExist.com. Think Exist,
  2010. Web. 15 Feb 2011. lthttp//thinkexist.com/quo
  tes/david_hume/3.htmlgt.
• ALL IMAGES FROM GOOGLE.COM OR CLIPART