Schopenhauer Essay And Aphorisms

Impressions and ideas according to Hume are the major and basic building block of human knowledge. Hume explains impressions as “all our more lively perception, when we hear or see, or feel, or love, or hate, or desire, or will”. (p27) Ideas on the other han

d are the reflecting back on perceptions in the mind which are less vivid then the actual perception. (p27) The process of a thought flowing from an impression to an idea and past impressions to an idea is called the law of association of ideas. The law of association of ideas is the base for complex ideas which is the formation of more then one simple idea. These laws, terms and with the help of other theories suggested by Hume give way to the understanding of the human external world. By simply screening Hume’s theories one may see his views worthy of believing, but by taking a closer look an individual can easily create a view to dispute his theory. In one theory Hume states that humans can not imagine any thing we want although it seems that way, because humans are narrow minded due to the fact that we think in terms of the impressions we see and that is how our ideas are formed. Because of this we can only thing of things we perceive with in the external world. One example which Hume used to support his theory is the notion of taking an idea such as God with the characteristics of being good, loving, infinite and giving. With this idea of God if we look closer we would see these ideas of God from our own perceptional ideas of what a perfect person would be like. The next example Hume states is with the missing of any of the five senses an individual can not create an idea with out it. For instance if a man can not see then he can not perceive color or if a person can not hear then they will not have an idea of what a song is. After he exemplified these two points, he then points out on flaw regarding his theory. His flaw states that if a man who had sight for thirty years was then blinded and there was one color he did not see, can he have an idea of it if one was to describe it to him. Hume’s answer was yes he can because his previous experience with colors helped him to create the idea of a color he never came across with. After he explained this flaw, he then throw out the flaw stating it was too small a flaw to disregard his speculation of ideas as an invalid theory. Although, Hume seemed to have made two plausible arguments for his theory with the commendation of one flaw, his theory still does not hold enough weight t

Some topics in this essay:
Hume Throughout, David Hume, David Hume’s, cause effect, Human Understanding”, human mind, external world, “matters fact”, idea world, hume’s theories, sun rise, theory hume, ideas impressions, , person hear idea, law association, law association ideas,