David Hume
David Hume’s Empiricism
Sanket Thakkar
Oakton Community College
Every philosopher begins with the premises from which he bases his entire philosophical theory. Descartes rejects all the premises and holds innate into question. He withholds all the assumptions and only believes in things that can be proven. His goal in subjecting everything to methodical doubt is you don’t know it is true until you have the proof. Descartes begins by doubting his own existence and starts with the premise, “I think I am therefore I am”. He is not sure whether he exists or not but the fact that he is thinking is the proof that his mind exists. Descartes is Mind-Body dualist and although mind cannot exist without a body, he believes mind and body are separate from each other. He proved that mind exists but that doesn’t prove that the body exists. He undertakes pyramidical approach and base of all his premise is that his mind exists and from there follows series of all other premises. He then proves that he has innate ideas from which he proves God exists which leads to the proof that his body exists. Descartes proves he exists by the virtue of thinking therefore he has the concept idea of “self”. David Hume has different approach compared to Descartes who begins by proving his mind exists. David Hume doesn’t doubt existence of mind but he is interested in how does the mind really works. He starts from question where do ideas come from. He begins by distinguishing two kinds of perceptions of the mind: impressions and ideas. The most fundamental perception according to Hume is impressions. Impressions consist of direct sense experiences of things outside us or inside us i.e. sensations or passions and emotions. It is anything that we get from the real world. These impressions leave a mark upon the mind and thus according to Hume, mind consists of large number of such impressions. He uses analogy mind is like a wax sheet where coin is smacked on to it leaves an impression of
Sanket Thakkar
Oakton Community College
Every philosopher begins with the premises from which he bases his entire philosophical theory. Descartes rejects all the premises and holds innate into question. He withholds all the assumptions and only believes in things that can be proven. His goal in subjecting everything to methodical doubt is you don’t know it is true until you have the proof. Descartes begins by doubting his own existence and starts with the premise, “I think I am therefore I am”. He is not sure whether he exists or not but the fact that he is thinking is the proof that his mind exists. Descartes is Mind-Body dualist and although mind cannot exist without a body, he believes mind and body are separate from each other. He proved that mind exists but that doesn’t prove that the body exists. He undertakes pyramidical approach and base of all his premise is that his mind exists and from there follows series of all other premises. He then proves that he has innate ideas from which he proves God exists which leads to the proof that his body exists. Descartes proves he exists by the virtue of thinking therefore he has the concept idea of “self”. David Hume has different approach compared to Descartes who begins by proving his mind exists. David Hume doesn’t doubt existence of mind but he is interested in how does the mind really works. He starts from question where do ideas come from. He begins by distinguishing two kinds of perceptions of the mind: impressions and ideas. The most fundamental perception according to Hume is impressions. Impressions consist of direct sense experiences of things outside us or inside us i.e. sensations or passions and emotions. It is anything that we get from the real world. These impressions leave a mark upon the mind and thus according to Hume, mind consists of large number of such impressions. He uses analogy mind is like a wax sheet where coin is smacked on to it leaves an impression of