Preview

David Hume's Attack On Causal Power

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
252 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
David Hume's Attack On Causal Power
This paper will present and explain David Hume’s attack on the traditional understanding of causal power. In order to do this I will use one of his most important claims
(NC) “We never observe any such causal power in any of our experiences” and see where (NC) fits into his attack and also give a better explanation of what (NC) means.
Hume starts his justification of (NC) by stating that every idea we hold is inspired from an impression in the world. Thus, the concept of a circle comes from circular objects we observe in the world with our senses. It is this sensory experiences that allows humans to formulate the idea of a circle and similarly all other ideas. It seems he is making the unstated claim that only experience can be the root

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Powerful Ideas, An Introduction to Philosophy, aesthetics means "coming from the senses" which is a derivitive of the Greek word, aisthetikos (241). David Hume's believed that emotions are significant in both aesthetics and ethics. In addition, he stated that aesthetics involves both contemplation and judgment. He strongly believes that not everyone is suitable or qualify to judge art.…

    • 120 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Omnipotence has been revealed to be an almost meaningless term by way of the paradoxes that it gives rise to, such as the ability or inability of an omnipotent God to make rules or animals that restrict its own powers. The interpretation discussed and ultimately the proposal that gave rise to a compatibilist approach was that proposed by Mackie and so there is little that he could criticise about this part of the…

    • 485 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hume’s version of empiricism begins with his distinction between analytic propositions “relationship of ideas,” which he considers to be a priori and true by definition, and synthetic propositions, which he considers to be a posteriori (“matters of fact”), and which are opposite of analytic propositions because they’re derived from our senses.…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Psyc 4100

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Rychlak, J. F. (1998). Is there an unrecognized teleology in Hume 's analysis of causation?. Journal Of Theoretical And Philosophical Psychology, 18(1), 52-60.…

    • 1335 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Argumentative Essay: Paley vs. Hume and the existence of a higher being Criticism of religious theories and practices is clearly valid and necessary. After all, what caused Jesus’s crucifixion was likely his disapproval of the resistance against his practices and beliefs. Accordingly, religious criticism is certainly more effective if it is respectful rather than dismissiveness, as it has the potential to elicit meaningful dialogue. While some claim that we come from cells that evolved into organisms, others argue that humans are primitive, and that science poses a better explanation to evolution than a fictional higher being. The argument of the former, however, is that if the earth came from a cell, that cell had to come from somewhere…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This paper will discuss the Logical and Evidential Argument from Evil, Peter Wykstra's Unknown Purpose Defense, and William Rowe's rebuttals in an attempt to ....…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Take as an example the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Firstly, according to the bible, people witnessed the event. Secondly, our experience of nature is that people who are dead do not come back to life. It is true that many people have had near death experience, but once a person has been in a grace or tomb for a day or two they do not come back to life – they start to rot. So this leads to a conflict between a law of nature and the miracle story. Hume’s question would be; which is more likely – that the law of nature has been violated or that the eyewitness accounts are for some reason mistaken? Hume’s conclusion is that miracles do not happen because there is so much clearly testable evidence in favour of the laws of science. Hume’s conclusion is that no testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony of such a kind that its falsehood would be more miraculous than the fact which it endeavours to establish.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Locke and Hume argue that all concepts are derived from sense experience, from impressions of sensation or reflection.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    His argument is influenced by the observation that the beneficial order cannot be explained because the universe is not self-explanatory and does not have its individual intelligence in its right.…

    • 956 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hume does not think we can compare the creation of the universe to a creation of a car or the creator of the universe to the creator of a car. Hume continues to reject this claim by pointing out that the existence of natural evil and moral evil in the world make it very unlikely that God exists. Hume does not think that with all the natural disasters, threats, attacks, homicides etc. that there can be such a perfect being like God. If God is willing and able to prevent evil than why is there so much evil?…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most recognized critiques of Aquinas is David Hume, who addressed the argument from design in his work Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. Hume began by summarizing Aquinas' logic, and the many alterations that followed. Essentially, Hume argued that attributing design in the natural universe to an intelligent creator is flawed in two ways. First, he uses to analogy of a house to discredit Aquinas' inferences.…

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    David Hume is a renowned Philosopher that has shaped the ideas of cause and effect (causality) as we know them today. He suggested that true cause and effect relationship has to be the result of A causing B. The occurrence of B happening is contingent on the fact that A occurs before B, thus causing B to happen. Since he holds that this is the only rational way to conclude that one thing causes another to happen, he goes as far as to say that human beings will never know the exact cause that takes place in order for B to be the result. Hume comes to this conclusion because he maintains that there are secrete causes that cannot be observed by the human eye, thus it is impossible for humans to rationally conclude that one thing caused another…

    • 1897 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hume believes the root of morality is emotion. He believes emotions, or passions, as he calls them, are the driving force behind our actions. Hume believes that how we feel about things determines what we determine is moral or immoral. There is no logical reason for keeping one’s promises if there is no benefit to you. However, we as a people have decided that keeping one’s word is moral because we would like someone to do that for us. We keep our promises because we want people to think kindly of us. There is no logic behind it, but there is emotion. Even when there is nothing to be gained for us by keeping our promises, we still maintain its moral to keep them because of how it makes us feel. This means, even when it is illogical to do something, if we feel it is moral, we should do it. Reason is not enough to change how we behave. It can give us some direction but it cannot compel us to do…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Although I disagree with his opinion, Hume exhibits a very sensible argument. David Hume explains four essential circumstances. First of which, Hume believes that God should dispose of all pain. Because both pain and pleasure stimulate humans equally, why should we be able to experience pain? For example, as regular humans we experience feelings such as thirst and hunger, instead of being able to feel the pain of it, we should just be feeling a lack of pleasure. Why is it necessary to feel pain when I simply want to eat or drink something? Secondly, God should eliminate all general laws of nature. For example, if a car crash is about to happen, God should interfere and insure that no person will come to death or extreme injury/pain. Next, God should not dispense talents and abilities unevenly between each of his creations. “God” created animals that obtain optimal strength, ability to fly, and run incredible speeds, while humans are left with minimal physical strengths. God also created people that are talented in sports, making life easier to stay in shape and a possible career by pursuing these particular talents, while there are others who have no special talent and are forced to take extra measures in order to gain fitness and a future career. God should have given equality to all of his creations. Finally, Nature seems to have defects that allow us to see that sometimes…

    • 1416 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    While many rationalists such as René Descartes support the notion that the concept of Inception is not possible, empiricists such as David Hume may think differently. Hume was an eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher known for his system of radical and philosophical empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. In one of his works, Hume stated that one cannot create completely new ideas without either prior knowledge of those ideas, or experiencing those ideas. Put differently, he believed that the ideas of an individual are derived or inspired by other ideas that the individual has observed, because there is no such thing as an “original idea.” Taking Hume’s theory into account, in the movie Inception, the protagonist Dom Cobb teaches his new architect, Ariadne, how dreaming works. In their shared dream, Ariadne comes across Dom’s wife, Mal. While this…

    • 501 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays