David hume Epistemology

Thanks: Beth Walley

Alive between 1711 and 1776, in philosophical terms, David Hume is the hero of modern-day sceptics. His theory was centered on sense impressions.

David Hume renounces all knowledge, except that which can be gained from the senses. Based on this assumption, Hume arrives at the conclusion that all human knowledge is based on 'sense impressions'.

Hume's 'Sense Impressions'

Hume argues that anything that cannot be backed up with evidence should be discarded as purely invention. In this, he denies the existence of God as well as that of logical necessity and causation.

Hume has two primary aims. The first aim is to rid science of any falsehoods which cannot be proven; that is, those beliefs that are based on invention, rather than experience. The second aim, the constructive, is to establish a science of human nature.

With regards to this second point, Hume was very impressed with the way in which Newton had described the physical world in terms of simple mechanical laws. He intended to project this idea onto a system by which he could account for human nature and understanding. He attempts this in his Treaties on Human Nature, a study in experimental psychology, in which Hume searches for general principles. This was entirely discredited. However, Hume's negative program is the perfect example of logical critique, the results of which remain a problem for modern philosophers.

Hume's Illusion of the Self

Hume believed that one never experiences their true self, and that a sense of identity stems from a person’s reaction to everything they experience. As he famously said, "I am nothing but a bundle of perceptions'.

Similarly, Hume notes that causation (the force that compels one event to follow another and so forth) is never experienced in sense impressions. Rather, the concept that the 'cause' must be followed by an effect and so on and so forth, to Hume, is just a projection of human expectation. Therefore, for Hume, there is no reason to suppose that there is any causal necessity in the ordering of events.

Hume's Inductive Reasoning

Hume goes one step further: he suggests that this human belief in causation is just an example of a general psychological state; inductive reasoning. Here, Hume argues that humans naturally make generalisations from observing a number of similar cases. For example, a person who has seen only white swans may seemingly conclude that 'All swans are white'. To Hume, such generalisations are not logically justified because they go beyond individual experience. The logical possibility of black swans always existed, and it was discovered that black swans exist in Australia, for instance.

Since all scientific laws fall into the pattern of observation that Hume outlines with his inductive reasoning, philosophers of science have regarded Hume's philosophy as problematic.