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Knowledge - David Hume and Immanuel Kant

            David Hume like many thinkers of British Empiricism believed that knowledge comes from sense perception. Unlike other thinkers of this time such as Locke and Berkely who believed that knowledge can go beyond sense perception Hume believed that knowledge is limited to sense experience. Immanuel Kant attempts to answer Hume's critic of knowledge and adjust it. Hume argues that it is impossible to know something fully because it is impossible to know the cause upon which it depends. Kant attempts to go against this with his A priori (from the earlier) and A posteriori (from the later) theories, specifically "synthetic A priori." Synthetic knowledge is something that has happened to you and analytic knowledge is something you have witnessed or observed. A synthetic A priori judge is something you know but have not experienced yet and Kant argues that this is possible. People often refer to this as his Copernican revolution.
             Kant believes that things are things because they are put together in certain ways in the mind. If this is true than it is acceptable to think that some of the principles of that structuring could be synthetic and you could know those principles A priori. There are many examples of what Kant considered to be synthetic a priori judgements, all judgements of mathematics and geometry. In natural science such judgements as "every event has a cause." In metaphysics, "There is a God," and "the soul is a simple substance, distinct from the body." In morality, the rule that we should not treat others merely as means to our own ends." These seem to be a priori because you would know them but not from experience and Kant argues they are synthetic because none of them is true simply in virtue of how the terms are related to each other.
             Kant is trying to understand these different topics (mathematics, natural science, metaphysics and morality).


Essays Related to Knowledge - David Hume and Immanuel Kant

1. Hume Vs. Kant

Kant Two of the most prominent philosophers of their times, David Hume and Immanuel Kant both gave great contributions to the foundation of thoughts that concern the metaphysics of morals. Hume, followed later by Kant's theories touched on different themes such as justice, freedom, the knowledge or metaphysics of value, and cause and effect. By first laying out the ideas of Hume and then Kant, to be in chronological order, I hope to gain a fuller knowledge as to the similarities and differences of each philosopher's beliefs. ... Immanuel Kant came later and set out to reform...

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2. David Hume - Human Nature and Understanding

As the author of several well-known works such as "Treatise of Human Nature" (1739-1740), "An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" (1748) and "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion," David Hume is one of the most influential figures to hail from Great Britain (Morris). ... Empiricism is a theory of knowledge branching from the field of epistemology that asserts the idea that knowledge arises via sensual experience. ... Several eminent figures in history from philosopher Immanuel Kant to economist Adam Smith to biologist/naturalists Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley credit David Hume as...

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3. Kant And Freedom

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4. Subfileds of Philosophy

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5. God, Myth and Reality

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6. Plato's Forms

The question of God's existence has been debated through the history of man, with every philosopher from Socrates to Immanuel Kant weighing in on the debate. ... Saint Thomas Aquinas indicates that Revealed Theology provides what he calls "Saving Knowledge", which is knowledge that will result in our salvation. ... Numerous Philosophers, Immanuel Kant being one, have refuted Saint Anslems assertion. ... The first disagreement against the Teleological Argument comes to us from David Hume, who actually lived 100 years before William Paley. ... Second, Hume indicates that we need to compare...

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7. Does God Exist

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8. Philosophical Approach to God

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9. The Development of Race

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