(855) 4-ESSAYS

Type a new keyword(s) and press Enter to search

Hume

The Design Argument has been mortally wounded by David Hume. The god arrived at by arguments on the one-way street of effect to the cause is dead; we should never have allowed him to live. In Section XI of the Enquiry, and throughout the Dialogues Hume subjects the Argument from Design to searching and searing philosophical analysis, to the point in his mind that it is forever dead, and to the point in our minds that we wonder why the world has not yet received the obituary. Why did it not die from the exposure to which Hume subjected it? Who resurrected this false phoenix? Has the Design Argument been forever altered by Hume? Can it render service in post-Hume discussions? These are the questions we should confront. David Hume's philosophy of religion is fatal to the natural revelation of Deism. His arguments the camp of unbelief have appropriated. It is an argument against any inductive proof for God's existence. What Hume seeks to show is the failure of this argument to establish the type of deity that belief in a particular providence or divine action must require one to assert. This he sets out first and in preliminary fashion in Section XI of the Enquiry and with more plethoric attention in the Dialogues. In both books he employs the dialogue form to embody his attacks. The argument of the former is mistitled. Fourteen of the seventeen pages have nothing to do with immortality or "particular providence." Hume's argument here is from the particular effect to the existence of a cause sufficient for its production. Causes are to be known from effects alone; to ascribe to it any superfluous qualities goes beyond the bounds of strict logical reasoning. The imagination must be philosophically bridled. When ten ounces are raised in a balance one can surely surmise a counterbalance exceeding ten ounces, but one can hardly offer any justification for the counterbalance to weigh 100 ounces.


Essays Related to Hume

1. Hume Miracles

... based on experience. Furthermore, when contemplating the validity of a miracle, the witness and teller of the miracle is the primary concern according to Hume. He says this because it is a known fact that human testimony can be either be true or false. Consenquently, it is important for people ... to understand the difference between a reliable and an unreliable source of information. Hume's answer would be that the more probable is also the most reliable. When looking at the legitimacy of a miracle, the question becomes whether ... through history when the untrustworthy accounts of a m...

  • Word Count: 1587
  • Approx Pages: 6

2. Hume

... philosophical thinking. Although philosophers of the past three hundred years may owe a great debt to him, and his main legacy today is as a philosopher, Hume, in his lifetime, gained the most acclaim as a historian. His work The History of Great Britain, published from 1754 to 1762, is a six- ... In 1748 published his most well known work An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. This was basically a condensed and more concise version of his Treatise. Hume moved into Edinburgh in 1751 and in 1752 he received, what he felt to be, his big break. He was named keeper of the Faculty ... 1...

  • Word Count: 1590
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Hume miracles

... to explain how unlikely miracles are; this is section X. In this section he goes on to say that they are the least probable things to occur. Hume defines miracles as, "a transgression of a law of nature by a particular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of some invisible agent."(p.149) Basically ... to a miracle then to believe all past experience which would go against the miracle, in order to prove that the miracle happened. With all of Hume's stipulations, it makes it impossible for miracles to be more probable than the opposite of the miracles. In order to reach this conc...

  • Word Count: 2147
  • Approx Pages: 9
  • Grade Level: High School

4. Hume Vs. Kant

... know things beyond our immediate surroundings. All of our knowledge is based on experience. Therefore, we need experience in order to reach relationships of the world and experience constant conjunction. Hume stated that he "shall venture to affirm, as a general proposition which admits no exception, that the knowledge of this relation is not in any instance, attained by reasonings "a priori", but ... argument. This argument centers on the theory of constant conjunction, which does not fall under either fork of reason. All inferences from experience, therefore, are effects of custom, no...

  • Word Count: 1427
  • Approx Pages: 6

5. David Hume - Human Nature and Understanding

... Concerning Human Understanding. He begins by comparing the two different manners of human understanding, which fall under the broad category of Moral philosophy. Hume believes the first manner to be "easy and obvious philosophy" by considering "man chiefly born for action" while the ... while "impressions" are more lively perceptions of "what we hear, see, feel, love, hate, desire, or will" (Hume 10). Hume further claims that all our ideas are merely copies of our impressions. To back up this claim, he suggests that all our complex ideas (Example ... fact." "Relations of ideas" can be ...

  • Word Count: 1547
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

6. What Is Hume's Problem Of Induction

... own response to that problem. Although as we shall see his own response may be far from adequate. This essay is concerned with explaining Hume's problem of induction as put forward in the enquiry, and explaining his sceptical solution to this problem. The essay is also concerned with assessing ... believe that it will always continue to do so? So it can be seen that the problem of induction is a difficult problem to overcome. Hume didn't simply leave the problem of induction as an insurmountable problem; he attempted to resolve the problem of how we can justify expectations of unobserved...

  • Word Count: 1008
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. David Hume

... on the external world. For example, looking at something right in front of you, an object that is clearly there, or is it? Hume had a strong belief that objects in the external world may not always be what people are seeing. For example, a person is standing in ... someone you know. Ideas which go thought you head, may make you visualize what you want to see rather than what you actually are seeing. Hume, who was always a sceptical philosopher tries to explain that maybe everything isn't what is perceived, which then generates the question, can we really rely ... on our senses at all t...

  • Word Count: 713
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Hume's Use of His Characters in, Dialogues Concerning Natura

... do not provide enough information to determine what is correct, leading him towards agnostic beliefs. Philo recognizes that skepticism is the only plausible answer to understanding religion. The Dialogues, expose Hume's views on the benefits synonymous with philosophical skepticism. Philo uses skepticism to balance Cleanthes analogical theory when he is trying to attribute qualities to God. Cleanthes inability to answer the ... the world. He asks if this is the world one would envision assuming an all loving benevolent God created it to his best ability. By attacking Cleanthes with this ...

  • Word Count: 1421
  • Approx Pages: 6

9. David Hume

... means of evidence of what will happen in the future. Since we have only experience of the past, we can only offer propositions of the future. Hume classifies human into two categories; "Relations of Ideas," and "Matters of Fact." (240) "Relations of ideas" are either intuitively or demonstratively certain, such ... as in Mathematics (240). It can be affirmed that 2 + 2 equals 4, according to Hume's "relations of ideas." "Matters of fact" on the other hand are not ascertained in the same manner as "Relations of Ideas." The ideas that are directly caused ... impressions are called matter...

  • Word Count: 1002
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

Got a writing question? Ask our professional writer!
Submit My Question